Contagion (Warner Bros.)
Rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language.
Starring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Enrico Colantoni, Jude Law, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, Anna Jacoby-Heron, Sanaa Lathan, Elliott Gould, Chin Han, John Hawkes, Demetri Martin, Amr Waked, Daria Strokous, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Written by Scott Z. Burns.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
GRADE: B
REVIEW:
It's tough to make a "feel-good" pandemic movie. Let's be honest. How can you depict disease, death, panic, and the obligatory piles of rotting bodies without crafting a morose, depressing picture of humanity? Either way, moviegoers are welcome to spend an hour and 25 minutes inside their local theaters, packed (with other perhaps contagious movie-goers) this weekend to contemplate such things by seeing Contagion, Steven Soderbergh's latest "ensemble" drama (think Traffic for disease, instead of drugs).
Just Like Soderbergh's Traffic (2000), the stars of Contagion are many, and include a LOT of Oscar winners and nominees, including Matt Damon (okay, I know that wasn't for acting), Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Lawrence Fishburne and John Hawkes, to name a few.
The story begins as a corporate executive named Beth (Paltrow) returns home to Minneapolis from a business trip from Macao, where she contracted some kind of super virus. (I'll give a little "spoiler alert" here, but if you've seen the trailer, you know that Beth dies). Beth's husband Mitch (Damon) is somehow immune to the virus, but just about everyone else who's come in contact with her dies via the same horrible means, which includes fevers, convulsions, and the spewing of a nice foam from the mouth, just before dying.
As the disease spreads, doctors and health officials get involved, including Centers for Disease Control medicos Dr. Cheever (Fishburne), Dr. Mears (Winslet) and Dr. Hextall (Jennifer Ehle). World Heath Organization authorities also get into the game, led by Dr. Orantes (Cotillard), who heads off to Hong Kong and Macao to try and locate the origin of the killer virus.
As the disease takes its toll, panic spreads, helped on by conspiracy theory-blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) who contends that the government is purposely withholding a homeopathic cure (that he happens to own stock in).
The race to find a cure and immunization drags on for months, as millions die around the globe.
Will Mitch save his only remaining child? Will the doctors find a cure? Is the government doing all they can, or are they really hiding something? Will mass hysteria kill off the survivors? What is the real source of the virus?
These questions and more are the crux of Soderbergh's (and writer Scott Burns) drama, and I won't answer them, except to say it's a story of a pandemic, and that's kind of a depressing story to begin with, so what do you expect?
Depressing tone aside, Contagion is a well-crafted, if not slow-moving puzzle, very much like Soderbergh's Traffic, with great performances from an obviously gifted all-star cast. With all those Oscar pedigrees, it's hard to pin point any one performance as noteworthy, with the possible exception of Jennifer Ehle, who many may remember as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 BBC/PBS miniseries Pride and Prejudice. Everybody else turns in the kind of performance you'd expect from the likes of those Damon-Paltrow-Winslet types.
The images and scenes in Contagion make it one of the most horrifying movies of the year, as we get a look at humanity at its worst and best in extreme times. Some of those images should scare little kids, so be sure and get a sitter. The image and sounds of Paltrow's skull autopsy should be enough to convince you.
One thing is certain if you do see Contagion: You WILL want to make a beeline to the nearest restroom afterward to wash up.
Now, if You'll excuse me, I'm off to bathe in a tub of hand sanitizer.
