'Side Effects': Steven Soderbergh Looks to End His Career on a Sad Note — POSTER (2012/12/11)- Tickets to Movies in Theaters, Broadway Shows, London Theatre & More

If Steven Soderbergh is getting out of the game, he’s at least going to give one last swing at the ball he’s been knocking out of the park for years: the tearjerker. Soderbergh has made audiences cry, and quite gutterally, for years with his dark, despondent films… and not in the My Dog Skip kind of way. This guy deals in heavy, depressing subject matter that invites the question, “What’s the point?” Soderbergh’s final stab at the genre of sorrow, and final big screen picture altogether (or so he claims), is the drama Side Effects, which has just released a new poster.

The story involves a young woman (Rooney Mara) whose troubling anxiety leads her to seek therapy under the case of a New York psychiatrist (Jude Law), who prescribes her a new, experimental medication that drives her further into emotional turmoil. Playing Mara’s husband (and a source of her anxiety) is Soderbergh’s new best friend Channing Tatum.

Soderbergh has had his share of fun on the big screen for sure: the director has dealt the world the lighthearted Oceans trilogy, the uplifting Erin Brokovich, and the dark but hilarious The Informant!, among others… including this year’s action masterpiece Haywire, which the director discusses in depth here. But he’s a natch at tormenting drama: Bubble, Che, Contagion, and his feature debut sex, lies, and videotape have all exhibited the artist’s flair for capturing human sobriety. From the looks of the poster and recent trailer, Side Effects isn’t veering too far from that path.