Side Effects

Synopsis: Emily Taylor, despite being reunited with her husband from prison, becomes severely depressed with emotional episodes and suicide attempts. Her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks, after conferring with her previous doctor, eventually prescribes an experimental new medication called Ablixa. The plot thickens when the side effects of the drug lead to Emily killing her husband in a "sleepwalking" state. With Emily plea-bargained into mental hospital confinement and Dr. Banks' practice crumbling around him, the case seems closed. However, Dr. Banks cannot accept full responsibility and investigates to clear his name. What follows is a dark quest that threatens to tear what's left of his life apart even as he discovers the diabolical truth of this tragedy.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director(s): Steven Soderbergh
Production: Open Road Films
  5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Metacritic:
75
Rotten Tomatoes:
83%
R
Year:
2013
106 min
$32,154,410
Website
1,853 Views


(CAR LOCK BEEPS)

FEMALE GUARD:
Front door!

I can't let it in unless I see it.

I know what the rules are. I'm just

asking if you can make an exception.

There are no exceptions.

That's why we have rules.

I know what a rule is.

I'm just telling you...

You don't have an X-ray

machine back there?

You don't have

an X-ray machine?

No. I've got to see it.

(SCANNER BEEPS)

MARTIN:
I bet you're not

going to miss that drive.

(SCOFFS)

Or the ambiance.

I would've gone a lot further.

You know, they gave me a

brochure on reintegrating.

Yeah?

Yeah.

A social worker came by.

What did he say?

Go slow.

We can go slow.

WOMAN:
Hey.

EMILY:
Hey.

I just wanted to remind you that

I won't be coming in tomorrow.

(GASPS) That's right.

It's the big day!

You must be thrilled...

Yeah.

...and excited

and nervous and...

And I wanted to thank you,

just for everything.

You've been so understanding.

Oh, I'm sure there's more to it

than what's on the news, so...

I know, but to a lot of people

you say "insider trading,"

and it may as well be murder.

You just stop existing.

So, thank you for everything.

I wasn't sure what I should wear.

I tried to find something new to buy,

but I couldn't find

anything that looked good.

Honey, you look beautiful.

And I can only imagine how

you're gonna look to him.

(GATE OPENS)

(MARTIN LAUGHING)

(LAUGHING) Oh!

Oh, Mama.

Oh.

Come on. Let's get out of here

before they change their mind.

(MARTIN MOANING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(CHUCKLES) I'm sorry.

(KISSING)

(BOTH SIGH)

MARTIN:
Babe, you remember that

hedge fund manager I met inside?

Marshall Hellman?

EMILY:
The Stanford guy?

Yeah.

Super smart. He was in for some

tax thing, but he'll be out soon.

He's got money in Dubai

and a lot of connections.

I can get us back

to where we were, Em.

I promise. I can

make that happen.

Okay, baby.

Thank you.

(ENGINE IDLING)

(BREATHING DEEPLY)

(MEN SHOUTING)

OFFICER:
I don't understand

what you're saying! Just relax!

BANKS:
Hello.

I'm Dr. Banks.

This guy's on something, okay?

Listen, just relax!

Officer.

This guy's on something.

He came swinging at me.

Stand back and let me talk to him.

He was trying to hold up a taxi.

You understand?

He came at me!

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

Augustin? Augustin.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

He's fine.

(BANKS SPEAKING FRENCH)

What is it?

What's going on?

BANKS:
He saw his dead

father driving the taxi.

What?

He saw the ghost of his father.

He was a cabbie.

So I was right.

He's nuts.

No. It's grief.

Just grief painting

pictures in his brain.

He sees ghosts.

(BANKS SPEAKING FRENCH)

He's Haitian. It's not

unusual for Haitians

to see their loved ones

shortly after they die.

Weird for me and you, but it's

perfectly normal for him.

Right, what do you have next?

MVA in bed eight, with minor head

trauma, in need of a consult.

Double shift today?

Better living through chemistry.

Miss Taylor.

Yeah?

I'm Dr. Banks.

Oh, they said I might

have a concussion,

but I don't have to stay

here for that, right?

Uh, we have to wait for the

CT scan results to know that.

I have a couple of questions for you.

How's your head?

It hurts.

How was it before you hit the wall?

What do you mean?

How have things been going with you?

Generally speaking.

Why are you here?

I'm a psychiatrist, Miss Taylor.

Normally,

when people hit things with their car,

there are skid marks on the pavement.

A brick Wall's a pretty good

reason to use the brakes,

turn the wheel.

You didn't do that.

You went straight in.

It says here the attendant

told the police

you were pretty upset

before you got in the car.

Now, the insurance company

are gonna check the brakes,

but I prefer to just ask you.

Did you try to hurt

yourself this morning?

(EMILY SNIFFLING)

Do you still want to

try and hurt yourself?

Emily.

How do you feel about staying

here for a few days?

Here?

Mmm.

No, I can't stay here.

Martin just got home and I

have to be there for him.

Is that your husband, Martin?

Yes, and he just got out of prison.

I have to be there, and I have a job.

I have to go into work.

He doesn't make any money yet.

Are you married?

Yes.

Okay, what if you got out of jail

or you were away for a long

time and you come home

and your wife is in

the mental hospital?

We waited for four years.

I can't stay here.

I think you may have tried to hurt

yourself this morning, and...

It was a mistake.

I lost it for a minute.

I promise, that's not

going to happen again.

Do you have an office?

Mmm.

Well, I could come

see you at your office.

I could come as often as you want.

I could come two

or three times a week.

I was in therapy once before,

and I remember that structure

really helps with hopelessness.

I promise. I just

really want to go home.

Okay. So we'll

release her to you,

um, but I want to see her in my office

this week. That's the deal we made.

I just had no idea this

was still going on.

Oh, honey, I think she must have

been putting on a brave face.

She was afraid to tell you.

She was afraid to tell me.

I want to start her on this.

It's called an SSRI.

It affects the neurotransmitter

in the brain called serotonin.

MARTIN:
What does

that do exactly?

BANKS:
Basically, it helps stop the

brain from telling you you're sad.

In a few weeks, she should

start to feel better.

WOMAN:
No, of course.

Of course.

It was soft. Absolutely,

it was soft in that first...

But we are going to tighten it up.

Sure, that's what we do.

Yeah. I think it'll be interesting

to regroup after the Dallas groups.

JOAN:
Emily?

Are you okay?

(DOOR OPENING)

Emily?

(EMILY RETCHING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Aww!

What happened?

Oh!

These made me sick, too.

I had better luck with Celexa.

EMILY:
I used to draw when I was a kid.

Mostly people, though.

Teachers and kids from my class.

Boys that I liked.

Sometimes cats.

(CHUCKLES)

I used to try and get

their faces perfect.

That's why I came to New York, I

wanted to get into graphic design.

I was taking classes

when I met Martin.

How did that happen?

I was working at this, uh, bar

downtown to help pay for school,

and he kept coming in after work.

And he would just order the

most complicated drinks.

Things that I had no idea how to make.

(CHUCKLES)

One night, he climbed over the bar

and offered to teach

me how to make them.

And he ended up staying until we closed.

Then he asked me out.

And you went.

I didn't know who he was or what he did.

He was just...

He was just this guy in a suit.

And watched me while I made drinks,

and that made me really nervous.

Then he stared at me

like I was a painting.

He had this beautiful sailboat,

and he took me out on it.

Taught me how to ski.

He swept me off my feet.

Proposed to me in Maui that winter

and we were married by spring.

How old were you?

That was five years ago, so I was 23.

Time goes by so fast.

Is this ever going to go away?

You said you felt depressed before.

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Scott Z. Burns

Scott Z. Burns (born 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. Burns has written screenplays for The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Informant! (2009), and Contagion (2011), all of which feature Matt Damon. His films The Informant!, Contagion, and Side Effects were directed by Steven Soderbergh. Burns also produced the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth. In 2018, it was announced that Burns would direct The Torture Report, a drama about the secret torture program inside the CIA. Burns is a native of Golden Valley, Minnesota and graduated in 1985 with a degree in English from the University of Minnesota. He currently lives in Los Angeles. more…

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    "Side Effects" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/side_effects_18107>.

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