Contagion (2011)

To think that a bat and a pig in China could bring civilization to its knees!This very well acted film drives home the plausibility of just such a scenario. There is some very good casting and ensemble work here. Matt Damon does well as a cuckolded husband who tries his best to cope with a harrowing situation. Gwyneth Paltrow is also good as a career woman who engages in an impulsive risk on one of her many business trips abroad. Also excellent are Laurence Fishburne as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kate Winslet as one of his top on-the-ground people. Ms. Winslet's performance in an unglamorous role was deeply moving. This film does a great job of driving home the point virus may be far less of a threat than the volatility of the mob at a time when rumor can spread instantaneously over the Internet. Observing the rule of law disintegrate...turns this into a kind of horror film, although things bog down a bit as we have to listen to a few too many rants by Jude Law as a paranoid blogger. Still, there are many sobering truths here. God-willing, our species will not have to face a replay of the 1918 Spanish flu in any one of our lifetimes. How vulnerable we seem to be!The film ends on a particularly intriguing note as we watch the perambulations of animals whose unknowing behaviors could very well hold the key to man's fate. Throughout, this film carries a stomach-churching score that seems a classic example of how music can contribute and enhance the cinematic experience.

Contagion was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The cast was stellar but under used, the plot was very predictable and characterisation was frustrating.However the movie does have some highlights. The music does a great job of adding tension, which is very important as the screen writing didn't have any by itself. The lighting and general cinematography were also well executed, with a very exaggerated colour palette providing emotional depth or definition in an otherwise boring and flat movie.All in all, watch it to enjoy the great direction by Steven Soderbergh, as he did the best he could with the awful screen writing and unoriginal plot ideas.

Matt Damon's character is immune to a contagion spreading wildly across the globe as a result of human cross-contamination. Tragedy besets a seemingly unblemished family life when his partner, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, falls ill and dies. She is not the only unlucky citizen to fall victim to the unknown disease, as we see other accounts from across the globe in individuals showing similar symptoms. What start's out as a mysterious collection of deaths results in a race to save humanity from the deadliest contagion in history...There's no doubting the fact that Contagion does have flaws - an overloaded cast of A-listers making it difficult to feel sympathetic towards specific characters, a foreseeable drop in tension towards the final act and having to bare witness to yet another accent attempt from Jude Law.Agonising accents aside, the film has you feeling muddied from the off (along with the coughing over the black screen, did anyone notice the almost nauseously-tainted Warner Bros. logo?) The polluted appearance of shots creates a bubble of infectiousness that audience members cannot escape from. There are countless images of basic human contact with objects and themselves; whether that's wiping their brows, lifting their glasses, touching their clothes...all of which causes the audience to feel uneasy and overly-aware of themselves and the people around them (a clever trick to pull in a public environment).The film then settles into its plot, one that owes much to other infectious cinematic experiences such as Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later or any early medical-related apocalyptic horrors/thrillers. So despite it not being original, I find Contagion to be the best attempt yet at portraying the anxiety, tragedy and sheer scale of a real-life contagion; after all, the only thing that's sci-fi about this movie is the disease itself.Contagion does seem to throw all its eggs into the one basket of statistical data and fact; we hear all kinds of different numbers throughout, possibly in an attempt to deliver the imposing scale of this impending disaster as realistically as possible.The problem with this approach is that the audience can quite easily get disconnected from the complex world of medical science to focus more on the sentimental side of the film; of it's characters and whether they will stand the test of time. Films must choose between science and sentimentality to ensure they don't have to share focus between the two.There are some admirable performances from A-listers such as Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburn and in particular Kate Winslett who I found wonderfully believable as a skilled medical expert struggling on many fronts. Unfortunately, I found myself quickly detached from any scene featuring Jude Law; mainly because I couldn't see beyond his adopted accent. Other than his rather brief appearances in Wes Anderson's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', I find it hard to pinpoint a performance from Law that stands out. With that, Contagion could possibly have benefited from being one A-lister short.The film also features an intriguing score that represents the panic, struggle and disorientation of ordinary human life. Changes in pace and volume are evident throughout, rising in intensity as characters grow more concerned for their safety and human survival.I enjoyed the exhilarating pace and infectious tension of Contagion throughout. I think despite its flaws it portrayed the human reaction to disastrous circumstances very well, created the necessary tension up until the final act to keep you embroiled in the suspense and included enough good performances to make this B movie as believable as possible. I've seen it on a few occasions now and as a medical student, I appreciate its efforts every time.

This is one of those movies that flew beneath a lot of people's radar. I rented it after hearing about it and was impressed. The sequence of event (from index case to the conclusion of the virus being contained), is tense but without the added conspiracy/action/drama elements that exist in similarly themed movies. I found that really refreshing. The makers of CONTAGION created a realistic feeling world where the biggest obstacles are egos, government bureaucracies and the human instinct for self-preservation. Laurence Fishburne and Jude Law play the two most interesting characters in the story. This is one to check out and one that people in the medical field might find pretty factual.