CONTAGION
BY JAKE MATHISON
September 20th, 2011
Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, John Hawkes, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: Scott Z. Burns
When the unpredictable outbreak of a deadly virus occurs rapidly across the globe, an all-star cast (headlined by Matt Damon and Kate Winslet) is forced to frantically chew up dialogue and take their best shot at saving what's left of our world. Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is a slick, realistic nightmare about a near-miss with a natural apocalypse. Of course, we've seen this film before, but the "new" is in the nuances. Rarely does a director of Soderbergh's (Erin Brokovich, Traffic) ilk undertake a project that in all honesty should have been earmarked for someone like Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers), and as such we should be thankful for the added weightiness he immediately brings to the table.
Contagion knows how to pack a punch, and there are a lot of them to keep track of here. From Marion Cotillard to Laurence Fishburne, this film was judiciously cast to allow maximum exposure, impact, and resonance. Unfortunately, flexing this strength also becomes Contagion's one true weakness as there are simply too many happenings and too many characters for us to care about any one of them individually. The exception, however, might be Matt Damon's (The Bourne Identity, Good Will Hunting) portrayal of the film's true civilian, a Minneapolis father coming to terms with the sudden death of his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the devolving world around him. Damon gives an intently focused performance here, being inadvertently linked to a seed of the outbreak, yet unable to do anything but survive until the next day.
There is a purposeful, frustratingly dull ache to this film, and it's really as much about cold, hard acceptance as it is about survival. Primarily set in Minneapolis (although filmed in Chicago), the bitterness of winter in Minnesota dutifully serves the enveloping struggle. Contagion is designed to hit close to home and succeeds, becoming worthy of hitting your wallets for-- at the very least-- a matinee.
3.5/5
Contagion is Rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language
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