This was a better movie than I expected. I didn't actually read much about this before I saw it, so I expected it to be a drama that would typically be on Lifetime or the Hallmark channel. I mean, I looked at the cover, it's got Jude Law, and I don't remember a single ad for it. It only makes sense that it is going to be about a spurned lover and drugging people.
To my surprise, it is more about intrigue than anything. A woman commits a crime while on a drug that her doctor put her on, and the questions revolve around her doctor's culpability and if he had been maneuvered into giving her the medication in the first place.
I thought they really made the story compelling enough that this movie should have been bigger than it turned out to be. I'm not sure if superhero movies are just getting all of the ad dollars at this point or what, but this movie was decent enough to get a chunk of change for putting people in seats. Don't get me wrong, it's not breaking new ground or anything, but it was not as predictable as most of the movies I've seen recently, and I like to be challenged.
Channing Tatum plays the husband of the afflicted woman very well. His role is not really all that big, but he is a big enough draw, I suppose, so they stuck him on the cover of the DVD. He did fine. I haven't watched a movie with him since White House Down, and he probably did a better job in this movie. Of course, it was better written than that movie, anyway.
Catherine Zeta-Jones does a very good job as the consulting doctor, and she plays a role that I am pretty sure I've seen her in before which is manipulative, stern, sultry, and a bit too distant. I'm starting to wonder if that isn't really who she is in real life, and it just comes out in almost all of the characters she plays. I have no basis for this, it's just a feeling, and it might be way off the mark.
Rooney Mara was last seen (by me, at least) in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo English remake. She did not come off as particularly attractive in that movie, but she comes off pretty well here. I don't think it was just a haircut and fewer nose rings, but I don't know. She does an absolutely fantastic job with her role as the troubled patient, and I can't imagine anyone else doing as well.
Jude Law is actually the focal point of the movie, and he plays a familiar guy who finds himself in a bad situation and has to figure out how to turn it to his advantage when everything seems to be going against him. I think I might prefer if he did a Repo Men 2 instead of movies like this, but he does a good enough job here that I'm not going to second guess his options for him.
Directing was good
Acting was fantastic
Story was very good
Dialogue was good
3.75/5