Movie Review - "Contagion" (2011) ***

     Well, here's a nice little movie that will make you never want to go out in public again. In recent years, outbreaks of SARS and H1N1 have caused quite a panic worldwide, and while those viruses unfortunately claimed many lives, the fear caused by them seemed to be the bigger story. While most of these viruses in history are contained in a relative quick manner, with minimal loss of life, the possibility is very real that one day something will come up that does claim the lives of many millions of people worldwide. It's not worth fearing over, but it doesn't hurt to take precautions. I know I for one find myself washing and sanitizing my hands more often than I did say 10 years ago. I'm still prone to touching my face, as most people are, old habits die hard I guess. But seeing films like this will certainly make you think of it more.

     Contagion tells the story of what one of these serious outbreaks could be like, and how simple it is to start spreading quickly. As the movie opens, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) has just returned to the U.S. from a business trip to Hong Kong. She becomes sick and her illness causes her to deteriorate rapidly, within days she is dead. Her young son also perishes after catching the virus from his mother. Beth's husband Mitch (Matt Damon) seems to be immune from the virus though and he is quarantined immediately after their son passes. Doctors initially can't seem to figure out what's wrong but reports of similar deaths start rolling in from all over the world. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) realize that a serious epidemic could be starting and jump on the case right away, led by Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne). Cheever sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to the frontline of the disease to try and find a way to contain the virus. Another doctor, Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard), is sent to Hong Kong to try and track down the origins of the virus. Together, these individuals along with many others, will fight to figure out a cause of the virus and come up with a vaccine, that could take months to develop, in the hopes of saving as many lives as they can.

     Contagion has its fair share of flaws but overall I thought it was pretty good, and there are times when I could sense a really great movie trying to poke out through the shell, but it just couldn't get there in the end. What I liked most is that I got the feeling, this was a pretty realistic interpretation of what could go on in a situation like this. There have been many movies that have touched on the same subject, but ultimately they seem to descend into your basic action picture where someone has to get a vial of medicine somewhere in a matter of hours or the world will end. So we get car chases and stuff that really take away from the seriousness of the situation. This movie doesn't fall for those traps. It plays everything close to the vest, and people act like how you would expect them to act in this situation. While the cast is full of stars, no one is out to be bigger than the movie, and that was refreshing to see. Damon, Paltrow, Fishburne, Winslet, Jude Law, these are all actors that have given great performances over the careers, but none of them gives their finest performance here. And I'm okay with that, it made the story stand out more. Kudos to director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Burns for making those decisions.

     My biggest gripe with the movie was the character played by Jude Law. He is Alan Krumwiede, an online blogger who at first seems to be your typical conspiracy theory nut. He runs around telling everyone how the government has a vaccine, but they are keeping it for themselves. He creates a panic among his followers who end up raiding pharmacies and looting stores. In the end, we see there are things that motivate him and he is no different than the people he criticizes. I don't know, this whole character subplot just didn't work for me. Law plays it fine, it's not a knock on his acting, I just feel it should have been cut out of the movie completely. It just didn't fit with everything else and seemed to ruin the pacing at times, which was my other minor issue with the film. We are following several different stories, in different parts of the world, and I sometimes found the stories getting mixed up. That could be me not paying enough attention as the viewer, but I was hooked with the movie, I just got confused with it a couple of times. These are minor complaints though. I do recommend seeing Contagion, just keep some hand sanitizer close by.