Tweet

Comments (1)

 1 of 2

Contagion Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for disturbing content and some language) Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller Theater release: September 09, 2011 by Warner Bros. Directed by: Steven Soderbergh Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow (Beth Emhoff), Matt Damon (Mitch Emhoff), Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Ellis Cheever), Jude Law (Alan Krumwiede), Marion Cotillard (Dr. Leonora Orantes), Kate Winslet (Dr. Erin Mears), Jennifer Ehle (Dr. Ally Hextall). Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Contagion opens with Gwyneth Paltrow coughing. She's on her cell phone at an airport, about to board a flight. Cameras observe the various things she is touching, the ways germs are being transferred. A few scenes later—after a fast-paced montage shows a handful of other coughing individuals in places like Hong Kong and London—Paltrow's character returns home to her husband (Matt Damon) and young son, her violent illness worsening. Within the film's first five minutes, she is dead and autopsied, and so is her son.

The fast paced, take-no-prisoners opening of Contagion sets the tone for the film. From the get go, director Steven Soderbergh establishes the pace (rapid), the scale (global), and the stakes (no one is safe—not even Gwyneth Paltrow and not even little children). From there, the film launches in to meticulous, globetrotting narrative of the pandemic outbreak of a mysterious, hitherto unknown virus that kills its victims within days. With a documentary-esque attention to detail and realism, Contagion takes a disturbing look at just what it might look like if, in 2011, an outbreak like this occurred.

Matt Damon as Mitch Emhoff

Evoking his past ensemble-rich films like Traffic and Oceans 11, Soderbergh's Contagion alternates rapidly between a number of storylines related to the outbreak. Most prominent in the film are the characters from the Center for Disease Control, featuring Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, and Jennifer Ehle as doctors tasked with understanding the lethal airborne virus and developing a vaccine before it gets out of control. Then there is Marion Cotillard as a World Health Organization official dispatched to East Asia to investigate the origins of the virus and pinpoint the location of the "index patient." Other prominent cast members include Elliott Gould, John Hawkes, and Jude Law, the latter playing an opportunistic blogger who rises to influence (7 million unique daily visitors!) in the midst of the crisis by suggesting government cover-ups and CDC collusion with the pharmaceutical industry.

There are a few things that make Contagion rise above its peers in the "disaster/disease outbreak" movie genre. One is its filmmaking caliber. Contagion is a well-made, superbly acted, stylish thriller. Soderbergh is particularly talented at combining arthouse smarts with populist entertainment value, and it shows here. The film's editing is impressively taut and economical, covering about a half year in the life of a global health calamity in the span of about 100 minutes, pausing at appropriate moments for quiet interpersonal exchanges and emotional expressions of individual characters.

Kate Winslet as Dr. Erin Mears

Another strength of Contagion is its perceptive, provocative commentary on contemporary society. The film is very much of the moment, reflecting on things like how technology (blogging, Twitter, etc.) can exacerbate panic and rapidly spread misinformation (faster sometimes than even airborne diseases). There is also an interesting pro-government subtext to the film. At a time when the political right seems focused on demonizing the federal government, Contagion takes pains to illustrate the plus sides of government: for example, the value of a coordinated federal disaster response equipped with funding and authority to get all the states and municipalities on the same page, or the value of mandated food regulations in keeping diseased animals from reaching kitchens and consumers. Sometimes the film's politics get too obvious: A city government employee is ridiculously demonized for complaining about federal authorities taking over the local disease containment. But most of the time, Contagion's political questions remain secondary to its primary task: grippingly showing the human drama that might unfold should a disaster of this scale take place.

The apocalyptic chaos of it all is unsettling, to say the least. There are riots and stampedes when food shortages occur and infrastructure shuts down. Local law enforcement struggle to maintain order as their forces are depleted due to desertion. People stay in their houses for fear of being infected but have to fend off looters. It's a scene somewhere between The Road and 28 Days Later, sans zombies. And yet Contagion feels much more hopeful, much more affirming than similar films of this genre.

next page... |  1 of 2 | last page

Rate this movie:

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4