A chronically depressed young woman attempts suicide just days after her new husband has been released from prison after he served a sentence for insider trading. The Psychiatrist on duty in the ER room prescribes different regimes of drugs which do not shake off the ‘poisonous fog bank’ she is immersed in until she persuades him to give her Ablixa a new wonder drug. Whilst highly medicated she commits a dire crime and when she is tried in court uses Ablixa as her excuse and points the finger of blame at the Doctor for not knowing about the side effects.

This latest (and possibly last) movie from director Steven Soderbugh is one that you should know very little about before you see it. It is a first-rate convoluted thriller that unravels beautifully slowly and reminds you what a master storyteller Mr Soderbugh is when he is on form. It also at the same time takes a hefty swipe at the inequities of how the medical profession are in cohorts with the powerful pharmaceutical industry to over-prescribe untested drugs far too easily.

The plot is unquestionably the star of the piece, and with the exception of Rooney Mara in her just her third starring role, the acting was proficient but hardly remarkable. (Although why Mr Soderburgh keeps insisting on casting the handsome but wooden Channing Tatum is beyond me!)  

If this really is his last movie (save for ‘Behind The Candelabra’ the Liberace biopic due out on HBO very soon) then it’s great that he is going out at the top of his (occasionally shaky) form.  But Mr Soderburgh is part of Hollywood where ‘never again’ rarely means just that.

★★★★★★★★