CONTAGION (2011) – The Review

All right! Who’s up for a good ole’ fashioned disaster movie with a bunch of big time movie stars? I mean one where you can’t swing a cat ( or tainted pig ) without hitting an Oscar winner? Well Steven Soderbergh’s CONTAGION is just the flick for you! True there’s plenty of trophy holders, but this is not your Irwin Allen-style jeopardy movie. No need for fancy special effects with detailed miniatures ( or CGI like 2012 ). This isn’t about a flood, fire,or quake. It’s a disease that’s cutting a swath through the cast. And being a Soderbergh film, the tone is more quiet that the ” cast of thousands ” epics of years past ( kind of like TRAFFIC ) . This may be more of a thinking man’s disaster movie. Instead of climbing and leaping to safety, the people here are having to make moral choices and protect their loved ones while an air of doom surrounds them. The “feel good movie of the year” it ain’t!

The bad times begin with Beth Emhoff’s ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) unfortunate Hong Kong business trip. She returns to the states a sweaty coughing mess. Back at the Minnesota home she shares with her hubby Mitch ( Matt Damon ) and young son, her condition worsens. After she collapses and convulses on the kitchen floor Mitch rushes her to the hospital. Meanwhile reports filter in from Hong Kong. There’s an Internet video of someone convulsing, then dying on a public bus. Soon the Center for Disease Control ( the CDC) in Atlanta springs into action. Dr. Ellis Cheever ( Laurence Fishbourne ) sends Dr. Erin Mears ( Kate Winslet ) to Minnesota. Meanwhile the World Health Organization dispatches Dr. Leonora Orantes ( Marion Cotillard ) to Hong Kong to find patient zero. Scientists at the CDC ( Jennifer Ehle and Demetri Martin ) try to create a vaccine to battle this highly contagious new virus. A popular  blogger Alan Krumwiede ( Jude Law ) takes to his Internet soapbox to warn of government cover-ups and publicize a miracle herbal drug. As the bodies pile up, the citizenry becomes desperate and marshal law is enacted. Will this deadly disease hasten the end of days?

Soderbergh references the paranoia surrounding H1N1 of a few years back in telling this new tale ( he also mentions the great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 ). With the fear of contact we’re also reminded of the early days of AIDS. While some scenes of desperation are harrowing, Soderbergh keeps things moving at a fairly low-key pace. Seems the sun’s never shining in the USA during this crisis. Some of the familiar actors who pop in can be a bit distracting ( There’s Elliot Gould! Look it’s Veronica Mars’s dad! ), though it doesn’t take you out of the fairly grim proceedings ( a few laughs are squeezed in ). The old horror movie trope of the camera lingering on objects works to great effect here. Instead of an axe or cleaver we see objects covered in virus germs ( That bowl of peanuts! The doorknob! ). All the subplots are kept moving and a few characters are revealed to have ulterior motives. Big kudos for the final flashback to the first day of the plague. It’s an interesting and , yes, entertaining exploration of the doomsday scenario. Oops, I’m out of hand sanitiser!

Overall Rating : Four Out of Five Stars