Steven Soderbergh declared earlier this year that he’s ready to retire from filmmaking. He still has a few movies left to make before he stops, which is good, because the versatile director can end on a better note than this. That’s not to say “Contagion” is not worth watching. It’s a must-see, in fact, if you wonder how bureaucrats and scientists react behind the scenes when a virus turns deadly for humans.
Just about every special interest is represented here — though we don’t learn much about the pharmaceutical companies that end up racing to be one of the first to manufacture the vaccine.
| On screen |
| 3 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law |
| Director: Steven Soderbergh |
| Rated: PG-13 for disturbing content and some language |
| Running time: 105 minutes |
Alan Krumwiede is on their case, though. Played by Jude Law, in a surprisingly earnest turn for the Brit, the blogger can’t get his research and ideas into the mainstream media, so he publishes online. He claims to have found a cure before any of the researchers focusing on the case.
They include Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) and Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doctors trying to discover where the virus began and how it might be stopped. They’re working with scientists Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) and David Eisenberg (Demetri Martin) in the lab while Mears goes in the field, working against the clock to test possible vaccines. They also get briefings from World Health Organization scientist Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) — at least until she gets trapped after she’s sent to investigate other countries.
We also meet the first American victim. Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) collapses in a fit of seizures after she returns home from a trip: one in which she cheated on her doting husband, Mitch (Matt Damon).
Soderbergh and his team clearly researched almost as much as the scientists they depict. And they communicate what they’ve learned without talking down to their audience, something few filmmakers seem able to resist. We might not know what every scientific term used means, but everything said by this brainy bunch makes sense in context.
That virtue — fidelity to the scientific process — helps kill the film, though. “Contagion” is far too clinical. Damon’s subplot is meant to add some heart, but with so much going on, we don’t learn enough about the family to care about the family. More interesting is the subplot involving Fishburne, which reminds us that those in power can’t help but use it. It seems Soderbergh might have fallen prey to the same thing.
