Contagion (2011)

We see a black screen. *cough*. *cough*. *cough*. That is how the newest Steven Soderbergh film, Contagion, begins. We quickly cut to Gwyneth Paltrow, who quickly dies within ten minutes of the film. She has contracted a deadly and extremely contagious disease while on a business trip to Honk Kong. She gives it to her husband and child (from her first marriage). Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) has something in his blood that makes him immune to the disease, but the son dies just as graphically and brutally as his mother. Mitch, alone, attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter (from his own first marriage), but quarantines her because he isn’t sure that she is immune as well. That is plotline one. Plotline two concerns Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburn) of the CDC, a scientist who is working on trying to find a cure for the disease, and is helped by Dr. Erin Mears (the magnificent Kate Winslet), who is basically the field operative for the disease, her along with Dr. Leonora Oranted (Marion Cotillard, who is one of my new favorite actresses after Midnight in Paris and Incpetion), who is sent away from the screen for an hour since she is kidnapped in Hong Kong, where she is trying to find the source of the disease. And the third (and final, don’t worry) major plotline in the film concerns a freelance blogger (Jude Law), who, during the outbreak, gains a group of thousands of followers who recognize his voice as the only voice of reason, which most of the time, completely goes against the voice of the CDC, and Laurence Fishburn. That was a big plot summary. The movie is about two hours long, and all of the characters, except for Marion Cotillard, are handled very well, which is standard for a Soderbergh movie, particularly like the Ocean’s Eleven movies, which were directed by Soderbergh. The movie is possibly one of the single most effective films I have seen all year. Let me begin this thought to say that-the last time I remember leaving a movie in the middle significantly, for any reason, was in 2007 when I left Spider-Man 3 ten minutes early, because of natural causes caused by an extremely large cup of sweet tea (for the rest of the time, I just forced whoever I was watching to go get me some concessions. Thank you complying friends). I left the theater in the middle of Contagion. For two reasons. One-to buy another one of those ten-gallon sweet tea cups. Two-to wash my hands. I walked in, washed my hands, and walked out. You do not know what kind of weird looks you will get. So yeah-the movie is effective. It made me leave in the middle of the film, and not a lot of movies can do that. I was scared of people touching me for about two hours after, also. This is probably the most effective horror film since I re-watched Arachnophobia about a year ago. Then, I was terrified of spiders. Now, I was terrified of germs. But the movie is not perfect. Some of the characters don’t get what they deserve, and with such actresses, it’s kind of frustrating. But Soderbergh knows how to handle ensemble casts extremely well most of the time, and that is what he does here. This is an amazing film. I recommend it to you greatly. I’m just not gonna shake your hand.
8.5/10