Rating of
3/4
Please Pass the Hand Sanitizer NOW!
MovieAddict - wrote on 03/15/12
Contagion is an intense thriller drama about an epidemic that spreads over the globe. It starts on Day 2 which didn't really make any sense at first. You find out why at the very end though. With Steven Soderbergh as director and a host of talented actors it's a roller-coaster from the very first unsettling scene, right up until the last frame. The scares come from things that human beings encounter every day. Make note that this movie will make you think twice about what you touch and who you speak to.
Matt Damon is terrific as the doting father, and husband who discover more about his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) than he wants to know in the wake of her horrifying death when she returns from a trip to Hong Kong, visibly sick and passes the infection to her young son. Another key character is Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Ellis Cheever, one of the researchers trying to identify the bug and prepare a vaccine. He then deploys Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to Minneapolis to investigate further reported cases. Jude Law is also great as a very popular internet blogger looking for the truth. He apparently contracts the disease, and takes a non-FDA homeopathic medicine and becomes cured, all online. However is all this real, or is he faking it to gain financial benefits? Kate Winslet plays an Investigator for the CDC (Centre for Desease Control). Her job is to search for answers as to how it started in the US.
Contagion deals with themes such as whether the human race will work together to find a common goal or take a terrible event and use it as an opportunity for our own personal gain! Would we be prepared to handle it, or would it be mass hysteria and chaos?
This movie definitely gives me a new perspective on epidemics affecting the world today. I am surprised by some things that I never knew about until I watched this movie. For example, the average person touches their face about 3,000 times a day but after you watch this atmospheric thriller you might not want to dine out at an Asian restaurant…..
