I don’t think Lysol could have come up with a better commercial for its product if it put an ad agency on an unlimited retainer. But I guess the good news is, if you see this movie you’ll be more prepared than anyone for the pandemic that will inevitably destroy us all. Yes, I think it’s fair to say I should have never gone to this movie when I was sick.
Contagion follows a highly infectious virus as it circumnavigates the globe, causing fear and panic in the general population. It’s not exactly a new concept for a movie, but I think what makes Contagion stand out is that at no time do you ever feel like any of it is that far from the truth. There are no forced action sequences or silly miracle cures: our heroes are Center for Disease Control (CDC) agents and members of the World Health Organization, and the result is something quite a bit scarier than your typical disaster fare.
Perhaps Contagion’s greatest strength is that director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns don’t try to sensationalize their fictional virus. They just allow the terrifying reality of the pandemic run its course.
Soderbergh’s direction does a fantastic job of emphasizing just that. Characters, both sick and healthy, are constantly touching everything in their path. Just watching a character walk through a bus becomes a lesson in building cinematic tension. Soderbergh has found a way to make peoples’ day-to-day routines do the work for him.
Contagion is also bolstered by a cast that’s almost hard to believe. Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, and Laurence Fishburne all take turns carrying the narrative. Winslet’s character in particular was a standout for me, demonstrating the terrible toll taken on the people charged with containing these types of viruses. I also have to give a ton of credit to Jennifer Ehle, whose performance as a CDC doctor working on a vaccine stole the spotlight from some of her more A-list counterparts.
But while the cast all do a great job, the number of characters makes it difficult to delve deeper into any one of them. Many characters merely stand-in for the particular occupation or demographic they’re meant to represent. The movie is meant to show the effects of the virus on a wide scale, but that does make it harder to grow attached to certain characters.
The film also suffers from its need to constantly explain itself to its audience. Often characters who should very well know the answer ask the question anyway for the sake of the audience. The information is always relevant and often quite interesting, but it can be distracting.
Ultimately, these flaws are forgivable. Contagion is a well-paced, tense thriller that knows exactly how to push the buttons of its audience without spiralling into cheap gimmicks or worn out disaster movie clichés. It may at times be bleak, but it’s certainly never boring.
