Contagion tells the story of a super infectious (and lethal) airborne virus, or at least they'd like you to believe that's what they're telling but really this is a character film heavy in dialogue (a la Social Network) that doesn't really rely on much else.
That however does not take away from what this movie is... and that is quite frankly the best epidemic film Hollywood has churned out in recent memory (Suck it Outbreak!) The film is a "horror" film as described by its filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Thirteen, Traffic) although I don't entirely agree with Steven (We're on a first name basis cause we're cool like that) I don't disagree either. Truth be told if he wants to call this a horror movie, he has all the power to do so, I will just call it the most believeable zombie movie of all time.
The film follows basically 4 different characters lives... The first of which is that of Mitch Emhoff (played by Matt Damon). Mitch is a Minneapolis man living with his wife and step-son, and the first to be hit by this mysterious virus... Not that he gets infected, he's immune to the virus, his wife on the other hand, not so much after her death he forces himself to a life of confinement to protect his daughter who came to live with him after the death of his wife. Mitch is the character in this film you can't help but sympathize (or empathize with, after all he's been through you just want it to be over so he can go on with his life.
The film follows basically 4 different characters lives... The first of which is that of Mitch Emhoff (played by Matt Damon). Mitch is a Minneapolis man living with his wife and step-son, and the first to be hit by this mysterious virus... Not that he gets infected, he's immune to the virus, his wife on the other hand, not so much after her death he forces himself to a life of confinement to protect his daughter who came to live with him after the death of his wife. Mitch is the character in this film you can't help but sympathize (or empathize with, after all he's been through you just want it to be over so he can go on with his life.
The second character we follow is Dr. Leonora Orantes (played by Marion Cotillard), a World Health Organisation Agent sent out to Hong Kong to try to trace the virus and find out it's cause thus allowing them to (hopefully) find a vaccine, so for the better part of the movie she's pouring over security footage of the Casino that Mrs. Emhoff (played by Gwenyth Paltrow) stayed at, and I found them to be some of the most entertaining footage of the film (Kinda like a Where's Waldo for a deadly virus) unfortunetly for her, she dissapears halfway through the movie and you almost forget of her existence before she pops up on screen again.
The third character is an internet blogger named Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law) that is always in search of the truth, and some money and most importantly loves a good scandal, even if he has to cause it. Basically he searches for conspiracy theories that he can manipulate to make the most out of them, and by most I mean monetary (Dolla Dolla Billz Yall!.)
The fourth character isn't so much a character but a group of them let's just call it Centers for Disease Control and Prevention peeps. This is the center searching for the cure to the unknown virus all the while dealing with a scandal caused by Laurence Fishburne's character and keeping Mr. Krumwiede off their asses and controlling the people so they don't riot and loot out the major US cities.
Overall this film is good, it has the choppy plot lines reminiscent of Soderbergh's old work (Ocean's Eleven and Traffic) with the old school charm of those totally rad '70's disasters movie (Recommended: Towering Inferno) I'd recommend it if you dug movies such as Outbreak, Eagle Eye and Dawn Of The Dead... Otherwise I'd skip this movie at your local Blockbuster...
You'd be missing out though
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