Movie Review: Contagion
Let me get this out of the way first: ignore all the trailers and advertisements for this movie. They don’t really tell you what it’s really about. Contagion is not an action/horror film, nor is it a George Romero-esque tale of oppressive government fear mongers and shadowy dealings (or even zombies). It is a Steven Soderbergh film, meaning it is more of an ensemble piece with lots of dialogue than anything else. What Contagion is though, is exciting, taut, and well worth watching.
The story begins on Day 2 as Beth Imhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) appears to be coming down with something as she sits in an airport in Chicago, on her way home to Minnesota after a business trip in Hong Kong. A few days later, she’s dead, from some brand new virus that not only kills quickly, but spreads like wildfire. From her death, the film then branches out to follow several tangentially related story lines: Beth’s husband, Mitch (Matt Damon) and the world of chaos his suburb becomes as he tries to protect his surviving daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron) from the deadly plague; Doctors Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and Mears (Kate Winslet), CDC employees bound and determined to find out what makes this bug work and how to stop it; Dr. Orantes (Marion Cotillard), a WHO researcher looking for the origin of the bug by searching Hong Kong for clues; and Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), a sleazy conspiracy theorist blogger more interested in getting people to go out and try Forsythia (a thinly-disguised version of the real world “wonder herb” Stevia) than on actual journalism. As the film cuts between these tales (and several secondary ones with even more notable actors and actresses), the story being told is not one of the paranoia and fear generated by the virus, rather it is a quasi-realistic portrayal on how humanity would deal with one so deadly (the movie’s virus has a 20% mortality rate; to compare, the real life Spanish Flu pandemic, the deadliest in modern times with millions worldwide succumbing to it, was 2.5%). We follow the killer bug’s life cycle, from its initial outbreak in Hong Kong, Chicago, and Minnesota, to the teams dedicated to discovering its origin, to what can be done to stop it, and the aftermath and its consequences.
What makes the film work is the classic Soderbergh style of having a variety of protagonists, all trying their best in one way or another to deal with their particular problems. Not even the government is a bad guy here (unlike nearly every virus-related movie ever made, which has got to be some sort of achievement), only the virus is. All told, despite the gloomy mood that settles over the film, it is actually quite inspirational, as all the pieces, from all the stories, fit together and paint a picture of humanity at its best. Nobody here is a monster; people have both faults and failings, and despite that are still able to find out how to survive. Even the most desperate acts by characters in the film (including a kidnapping) are not done necessarily out of true selfishness, and to see a movie portray the search for answers from that angle in incredibly refreshing.
Marion Cotillard in Contagion. Photo by Claudette Barius.
© 2011 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Well, almost everyone isn’t selfish. Jude Law’s character actually may come the closest to being out of place. His story is necessary to one part of the plot (and even then it isn’t something that another bit part couldn’t have handled), and then…well, that’s it. He is essentially there as a punching bag, a character so disreputable and unpleasant you almost want to see him get the virus just to watch him get his just desserts. He is probably the only character in the film in it for himself, with no motivations beyond grabbing a few bucks while blaming the rest of the world for his problems. He is a cartoon in a sea of realistic people, and when his story comes to a close, it…well, just sort of comes to a close. I’m not saying he does a terrible job with the part…the fact that he comes across as such a pitiful scumbag is actually a testament to his acting…but he really serves no purpose other than to be the fly in the ointment. And for his story to end as abruptly as it does is one of the few times the film falls flat. Damon doesn’t have much to do, either, mostly scaring off local punks and keeping his daughter from seeing her boyfriend, but at least his story brings closure to the events, and his reaction to the world is not only admirable, but probably the one most of us would wish to have at a time like that. Perhaps that is why Law is in this, to show that not everyone is working towards the best possible outcome in a crisis, but it still seems like Damon’s character should’ve had greater impact than he does.
The movie does run the gamut of emotions: there are the times to be sad, be shocked, laugh (yes, there are some exceptionally dry moments of black humor in this), and so on, but unlike so many other films in this genre, Contagion is ultimately very uplifting, and serves to quell the fear it tries so hard on the poster art to engender. The (marginally) twist ending almost seems unnecessary; we don’t need that piece of information to appreciate what we’ve seen for the past hour and a half. In any case, in a year full of gravity-defying priests, pirate mermaids, vampire neighbors, jumping sharks, and screaming barbarians, this is definitely a candidate for the best film I’ve seen all year and unless the idea of seeing a couple of people foaming at the mouth is an immediate deal breaker, I heartily recommend it.
Seth Paul
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