Contagion

Update 8 March 2020

       It’s appropriate to rewatch this film at this time, don’t you think? It’s like watching the news only in film form with loads of famous actors. And being a film it’s much worse and much more dramatic than the Corona virus.

       We hope.

4 April 2015

Contagion 2011

• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon. Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould, Enrico Colantoni
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gwyneth Paltrow  – Two Lovers, Proof, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Royal Tenebaums, The Perfect Murder, Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors, Moonlight and Valentino, Seven, Hook
• Matt Damon – True Grit, Invictus, The Brothers Grimm, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Bourne Identity, Dogma, Saving Private Ryan, Good Will Hunting, Courage under Fire,
• Laurence Fishburne – Bobby, Akeelah and the Bee, The Matrix Trilogy, Mystic River, Othello, Boyz n the Hood, Class Action, The Colour Purple, Rumble Fish
• John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone, The Miracle at St. Anna’s, The Perfect Storm. A Slipping Down Life
• Jude Law – Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, Hugo, Repo Men, Sherlock Holmes, The Imaginariunm of Doctor Parnassus, Sleuth, The Aviator, Closer, Alfie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Cold Mountain, Road to Perdition, eXistenZ, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde
• Marion Cotillard – Inception, Nine, Public Enemies, La vie en rose, A Good Year, Big Fish, Un long dimanche de fiancailles
• Kate Winslet – Mildred Pierce, The Reader, The Holiday, Little Children, Romance and Cigarettes, Finding Neverland, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Life of David Gale, Hideous Kinky, Titanic, Hamlet
• Jennifer Ehle – The King’s Speech, The River King
• Elliot Gould – Friends, American History X, MASH
• Enrico Colantoni – Veronica Mars
• Why?  Sounded good. Good cast.
• Seen:  March 22, 2015 

OK, I am never going to touch anything or anyone ever again and I’m not going to leave the flat. I think I’ll stop breathing too.

Um. That won’t really help, will it?

Let’s pretend this is just a film.

And it’s quite a film.  It tries to do everything. From the outbreak of the pandemic, rapidly through the death of millions, to the collapse of society, to the development of the vaccine, to the romantic end for one young couple.

There are too many people to really care about any of them, though each individual actor offers a good performance. Best is Jude Law as a manic whistle blowing blogger who exposes, or seems to expose, fraud, cover-up, nepotism, corporate greed.

As a realistic prediction of what could – and very likely will – happen, it’s a very good film.

As a thriller it’s too reserved to be exciting. Maybe it’s not a thriller. Maybe it’s a documentary…

3 ½ * of 5