Contagion (A) (and an explanation of where I have been)

Before I start my review, I will say that this site has been acting up and not only made some of what I have written (including my 3-D Report for August) unpostable but also caused my computer to freeze every time I tried to insert a link or even paste in a web address. I am thinking of maybe switching to another site, but for now here is a review for one of the few good recent movies.

Cold detachment and lack of a central story both enhances in inhibits its success. The story lacks a true plot or an emotional resonance with audiences, but it provides a very well-crafted and impactful look at how fragile society is and how quickly it could fall apart.

Contagion plays like Valentine’s Day from hell. Various people linked to each other deal with an outbreak of a deadly and very contagious virus. Pivotal roles involve Laurence Fishburne as head of a center for controlling epidemics, Kate Winslet as his newbie assistant, Marion Cotillard as a health advisor kidnapped in China by a village hoping to ensure the best medicine, and Jenifer Ehle as a scientist who thinks she may be able to develop a vaccine. The acting is all good, though Jude Law does not bring the extra touch he usually does to his role as an anti-societal blogger (possibly because the character is just the slightest bit underdeveloped). The best is Matt Damon as a man who loses both his wife and child son to the disease and must raise a teenage daughter (Ana Jacoby-Heron in what is hopefully a breakout role) in an increasingly chaotic world.

Writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant!) is more concerned with the big picture than he is with individual characters or plots, and Director and Cinematography Steven Soderbergh (The Informant!, Traffic, Erin Brockovich) amplifies this with a very cold detached style and subdued color scheme. Every scene is cut away from as it gets intense, and the camera retains both a literal and figurative distance throughout. This will certainly anger some—Critic Peter Debruge of Variety stated “Without fully rounded characters, it's hard to care who lives or dies in what amounts to an extended procedural on how disease prevention organizations might respond to such a scenario.” However, there is certainly a lot gained by the film’s unique style.

By looking at the broad implications of it—by using that distance so as to truly get a scale of the chaos—the film gives a detailed look at how fragile the world is and how swiftly it could plunge into chaos. There are very few moments that sound unbelievable, and the viewer has the chilling feeling this could very easily happen. 2012 and the Transformers movies show us a world literally falling apart, but we are more amused by the absurdity than genuinely impacted. Contagion contains no explosions, no natural disasters, and no grand escape plans; but it is far more effective at making us, the audience, truly ponder that maybe we should rethink life—maybe it isn’t quite as secure as it seems.

Contagion is not for everyone. It is unconventional, not just in its originality but in its refusal to risk hurting its tone with human emotion. However, it is an artistically-foolproof and very powerful look at how quickly the world as we know it could end.