PLOT: A virus starts spreading around the world at an alarming rate. Travellers from Hong Kong help
spread this contagion including business exec Beth Emhoff (who becomes one of the first victims). The Center for Disease
Control and World Health Organization dispatch doctors to find the cause as the CDC races to find a cure to a virus as deadly
as smallpox or even the Spanish Flu. Meanwhile, Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon) deals with his wife's death
and watches as the world comes apart as the virus claims more lives and causes quarantine of some affected areas.
Also a conspiracy minded blogger, Alan (Jude Law), steers people up as he thinks he is bringing the truth out.
CONTAGION chronicles the effects of a global viral pandemic.
ANALYSIS:
CONTAGION is a scary and unnerving film. It is one of the better films from director Steven Soderbergh.
He manages to craft a masterpiece that manages to juggle and develop a dozen characters while showing how a global viral pandemic
effects the world as it spreads from the people out in the open to the doctors trying to cure it.
When the film ends as hope is offered, you still see the consequences that are still yet to come or to come into focus
from how the characters react in this film. Matt Damon's character is overly cautious about protecting his
teenage daughter as he is worried she might not be immune like he is to the virus which claimed his wife and son.
His actions echo through the film while also Dr. Cheevers' decisions may cost him his job in the end as the government looks
to find a scapegoat. CONTAGION is a study like the film DIRTY WAR (about a dirty bomb attack on London,
England) was. Soderbergh is able to use the sparse amount of music and the cinematography to his advantage
as he ups the body count through the film. As the days drag, there is no quick cure and the cure may have
its own side effects when they find one.
Some stories do start out effectively and fizzle out like Dr. Orantes and come to a conclusion never to see the character
again like Dr. Sussman. I do look forward to seeing CONTAGION again when it hits DVD and blu-ray.
I hope Soderbergh has some additional scenes showing more of the effects of the viral pandemic. I wouldn't be
surprised if this was nominated for Best Picture for 2011.
this movie review is (c)9-11-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all commenst
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