February 10: In some cases....

February is a big month for moviegoers. With the Academy Awards, a collection of aging action stars making comeback attempts, and fresh new story ideas popping up everywhere, it is a good time for the silver screen.

One such movie that came out this past week was Side Effects. Staring Channing Tatum, who is attempting to turn his career toward the more serious roles, Rooney Mara, who is coming off the big success of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Jude Law, this movie features a couple trying to get back on its feet after a jail sentence for Tatum’s character. As the story develops, the main theme that rises through is the use of prescription drugs to cure depression, and how those drugs are bought and sold.

This was a fascinating film for a multitude of reasons. Most prevalent of them is that I don’t think this movie could have existed a decade ago. We are growing more and more dependent on drugs to cure our problems. Rather than putting in the time and effort to solve some of our problems, we believe that we can be cured by a little pill that has the magical power to make everything better.

This is, of course, not to say that depression is any less legitimate. Depression is a major illness that plagues a great many people. There is, however, a vast difference between clinical depression and feeling depressed. Those feeling legitimate clinical depression need some kind of medication to balance out the chemicals that, within them, are making day to day living a virtual impossibility. Feeling depressed, however, is something that must be managed on its own.

The view that one of the characters (attempting not to spoil anything) demonstrates toward these medications is very much indicative of the cultural view of drug use in curing depression. At one point, this character asks for a pill that can make her feel better, and she does not seem to care about the side effects that may be induced. Another scene shows a doctor prescribing a medication to layer over the other in an attempt to hide the negative side effects of the first. It is only later, after a particularly bad side effect (again, protecting those who will see the film) she says that she no longer wants to take any form of medication, indicating a blame placed on the drugs, an ability to shirk the responsibility from one’s self onto the medication.

While this is only one of the great many elements of this movie, it brings up two very interesting elements of the world in which we live. Primarily, it gives us insight into the dependence that we create on drugs in an attempt to find an automatic way of feeling better. Living a happy life isn’t easy, and far too many people want to find a simple way of creating that happiness without putting in the work to make it so. This movie calls out, in some ways, the prevalence of this over-medication in the world today.

Another, far less significant part of this film is the writing that comes into play when creating media that is indicative of the changing of times. While some stories are timeless, this one is clearly geared to a very contemporary issue, and indicates a very exciting new kind of storytelling. It is incredible to see that there are new and different stories coming out, and it is exciting to see where those stories will take us.