Steven Soderbergh is somewhat of a veteran director of the multiple-narrative structure of filmmaking. His "Traffic" is an exceptional meditation on the drug war and its bleak outlook toward a solution. It was full of A-listers and was shot with a grainy look to symbolize the griddiness of the drug trade. Soderbergh now gives us "Contagion," which follows the outbreak of a nasty biological threat through a similar narrative structure, but ditches the soft, grainy look in favor of glorious high definition. It is a thriller of startling effeciency and showcases a top-tier cast of characters to show us that nobody is immune to fear.
If you think about it, the virus thriller is really a perfect fit for a fractured narrative. By following mutliple characters, some getting more time than others, it highlights the urgent nature of a global threat: everyone is at risk. The movie opens on Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), looking ill and dipping her hand into the peanuts at an airport bar. A few other individuals in a variety of countries seem to be ill also and Soderbergh follows each in a tense montage of the carriers touching and variously interacting with the environment. It is a striking reminder of just how disgusting public places can be. Without giving anything away, let's just say that once Beth gets home, the serious nature of this virus takes hold in a series of tragic events. These provide "Contagion" with its most terrifying moments. What follows is a gradual global awareness that eventually requires immediate action from the CDC and the World Health Organization.
The ensemble cast filling out the health officials is impressive. I was most intrigued by Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Ellis Cheever, a superior at the Center for Disease Control. His scenes involve assuredly handling multiple strands of information while he struggles to make sense of the devastation caused by the disease. Part of the challenge is keeping a lid on any information that is uncertain so that global panic can be avoided. The human antagonist here, if the film has one, is Alan Krumwiede, a sensationalist blogger played with savvy by Jude Law. His internet blogs provide millions of viewers with paranoid theories about a cure for the virus and the "lies" coming from the CDC. The fear generated from this causes outbreaks of rioting, mobbing and more death because people look in the wrong direction for a cure.
All of this is shot with steadiness by Soderbergh, who also works as his own cinematographer. No queasy- cam effects here, which is to our benefit and makes it all the more startling to watch it unfold. It is easy to draw up comparison to "Outbreak," Wolfgang Petersen's 1995 take on the virus thriller. The film had a more conventional structure and "Contagion" seems to have been marketed in such a way as to come across as too conventional. That it isn't is a great pleasure for its audience because it unfolds with perception and relatable human behavior. Watch the scene where Matt Damon's character is told some horrifying news. His immediate reaction is denial and utter inability to comprehend what has been told to him. This may be hard to watch for audience members who have lost a loved one. Matt Damon is an in-demand actor with a high profile in the movies these days. His performance here shows us exactly why.
Other key players come and go in various ways. I enjoyed Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) who is given assignment by Dr. Cheever to set up a unit in Beth Emhoff's hometown to stop the spread of the disease. She gets perhaps more than she bargained for with some of the town's officials and the nature of the disease itself. We also meet Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard), an official from the W.H.O. Admittedly, Cotillard gets the least amount of screen time of all the main players, which is a shame because she is so radiant. Some reviews claim she is wasted. In fact, her character is most vital to the plot considering she is sent to Hong Kong to trace the origin of the virus. It is the contrived subplot she is thrust into that is a waste. It is easily the film's weakest element and isn't very believable. Jennifer Ehle also deserves praise for her performance as the CDC Doctor who develops the eventual vaccine.
"Contagion" is a thinking person's thriller. If you expect a thrill-a-minute action movie full of worldly devastation, you may come away disappointed. What Steven Soderbergh provides is a startling examination of the procedures and human emotions involved with facing a highly lethal biological enemy. It plays like an urgent news cast, cutting between locations and characters as they stumble to figure out a global pandemic. There is a sequence at the end of the movie that traces the origin of the virus; this knowledge is for the benefit of the audience and is never discovered by any of the characters. Soderbergh didn't have to provide this sequence but it is a comfort. Here is a scary thought: if the events of this movie happened in real life, we wouldn't get that happy ending.
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