by Brian Kesler
'Contagion' boasts a competent director (Steven Soderbergh), an eery premise, and a cast list that rivals Soderbergh's own 'Ocean's Eleven.' Included in that list are: Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet. Not included in the star billing, but weighing in just as important are Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould, and a strangely silent Demetri Martin (yes, Demetri Martin). The first thirty minutes I was hooked. Around the middle section, my enthusiasm was hesitant. By the end, I found myself wishing the film had gone in a different direction than it did. However, my wishful thinking doesn't keep this film from being the well made, well scripted, well acted movie that it is. But, it could've been great.
The film opens with Paltrow coming home from a visit to Bangkok. She is coughing. Her nose is red. She coughs into her hand before grabbing her credit card and handing it to the bartender. The bartender then touches the computer. Once Paltrow is home to her husband, played by Matt Damon, and children, her son starts to get sick. Foam starts to billow from their mouths. At the hospital, doctors are at a complete loss for what happened. There are similar cases in, whaddya know, Bangkok, and in Chicago - where Paltrow took a drink during a layover from her flight. The film presents an interesting idea. No matter where a disease is born, it could potentially affect the rest of the world in under 24 hours. It's a frightening premise.
The film continues as Damon tries to protect his family, and government funded doctors search endlessly for the cause and the cure. Cotillard - stunning as always - travels to Bangkok in search of the cause, Winslet travels to Minneapolis (Paltrow's hometown) to conduct tests and get a firsthand account of what is happening, and Ehle, Gould, and Martin start working on the cure. Fishburne is a general leader of the doctors who is forced to make some vital decisions, and Jude Law tries to capitalize on the situation by persuading people that a certain drug, of which he has investments with, cures this new disease.
The first thirty minutes, in which we discover and discuss with the doctors what this disease is and how it's affecting humanity is intriguing, involving, and fascinating. But the film, rather than investing in its characters, gets a little sporadic in its story telling. There are just too many characters with too many subplots for us to really explore any of them. There are certain characters that weren't in the film enough - such as Marion Cotillard, who is absent from the bulk of the second act - as well as characters that were, perhaps, made more important than entirely necessary - such as Jude Law, who takes up much screen time for a subplot that only supplies sparks of interest. The film eventually becomes very hopeful, showing humanities ability to overcome any obstacles that may come in our way, but I wished the third act was as dark as the first. Still hopeful, but maybe less ambitiously so.
That being said, the performances, as you may have assumed, are top notch, the direction very tight, as is the pace, and the photography simple and eloquent. The very idea of the film is one I can get on board with. It's a frightening scenario that could potentially happen. Many films scare us of doing things we very well don't have to do. 'Contagion' plants fear in a human activity completely out of our control: illness. The next time I catch a cold, I'll think of this movie and laugh and wonder if somewhere the wrong bat met up with the wrong pig.
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