Contagion --- Nothing Spreads Like Fear

The Movie:  Contagion

 

Plot:  

An unknown virus spreads rapidly across the globe and causes death among helpless victims. Everyone could be infected-- young and old, ordinary and professionals, even doctors!   The virus weakens the immune system, causing flu-like symptoms, and then seizure comes that results to sudden death on the 4th day of infection!  The movie shows how the deadly virus affects the lives of different people and how those in the medical field, and those in the position to help, struggle to come up with a cure.    

Cast of Main Characters:

Gwyneth Paltrow (Elizabeth Emhoff)- an employee of AIMM and wife to Mitch Emhoff, played by Matt Damon.  She fell ill from a business trip in Hong Kong.  She initially had flu-like symptoms.  In a matter of 4 days, she fell into seizure and died in the hospital.  Her 6 year-old son, contracted the disease from her, and soon died after her.  Beth’s death disclosed a secret that she had been concealing from her husband—she had been cheating on him.  It was exposed when the man she’s having an affair with in Chicago, died of the same symptoms.

Matt Damon (Mitch Emhoff) - a good husband to Beth, his second wife.  A good father to a teenage daughter by his first marriage, and a good stepfather to 6-year old Clark—Beth’s son from her previous relationship.  Mitch tried his best to protect his surviving daughter from the virus.

Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Ellis Cheever) -  an officer of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC.  He is reluctant in disclosing to the public the nature of the disease and its cure.  Inspite of his responsibility to the public, he protected his wife by sending her away.  He was later beset by guilt and gave an MEV-1 vaccine to the son of the CDC janitor.

Kate Winslet (Dr. Erin Mears) --  a doctor from the Epidemic Intelligence Service.  Very passionate in her duty to help the victims, she struggled in her negotiations with the local bureaucrats of Minneapolis who were unsupportive of her cause to trace back the origin of the disease and find the cure.  Dr. Mears herself contracted the disease and died in the medical station she earlier helped set up..

Jude Law (Alan Krumwiede) – a freelance journalist in San Francisco with a blog on the mysterious disease.  He stated in his blog that he was cured from the mysterious disease through the forsythia.  His thousand visitors believed his pronouncements that the CDC is concealing from the public the real cure for the disease because it is conniving with the pharmaceutical companies for selfish profiteering.  It was later discovered that his declarations in his blog is a hoax. He did not really get sick of the virus.

Marion Cotillard (Dr. Leonora Orantes) - an epidemiologist from the World Health Organization (WHO).  She gathered evidences from the Macau Casino CCTV tapes, to trace the source of the virus which infected Beth Emhoff.  Dr. Orantes was kidnapped by Sun Feng, a Chinese epidemiologist, who made her stay in their community with possibly infected children.  She acted as teacher to the children with whom she got close during her stay.  She was released in exchange of the cure.  She discovered that her team fooled the Chinese group by giving them placebo, instead of the MEV- 1 vaccines, the real cure to the virus.  She immediately left the official who rescued her and went back towards the direction of Sun Feng's community. 

Jennifer Ehle (Dr. Ally Hextall) -   a selfless scientist who untiringly discovered MEV-1 vaccine, the cure for the deadly virus.  A trusted scientist colleague helped her in the several tests.  She first tried the vaccine and exposed herself to her critically ill doctor father.  She did not contract the disease, afterwards the MEV-1 vaccines were distributed to patients by batches. 

Movie Review:

The movie is star-studded with Oscar-nominated actors who showcased an intertwining of lives of different people and how they react to events resulting from the spread of the disease.   

Among the actors,  the following were outstanding in the movie:

Jude Law gave justice to his role as the scheming journalist taking advantage of the dreadful situation.  His fake bad teeth added convincing power to his quite lisp speech, which he did very well.  Jude Law has truly graduated from that vulnerable teenager image in Love Me, Love Me Not (a B movie opposite Claire Danes) into one of Hollywood's formidable actors.    

Jennifer Ehle was brilliant in her performance as the dedicated scientist.  Among the female characters, hers showed strength of emotions.  Ehle's acting was able to convey her character’s passion to come up with the cure.  

Kate Winslet’s performance is convincing as the doctor who pursued investigation and possible cure but was met by the bureaucrats' cold shoulders.  Her succumbing to the disease showed her poignant acting. .  

Other actors were undeniably good but were not given the adequate sequences to showcase their acting prowess.  This is the challenge when a movie involves several characters.  Some of the main characters appeared passive.  They could have shown more. 

Towards the end of the movie, the scene of Matt Damon reminiscing his wife, and the mock-prom night of his daughter and her boyfriend, were dragging.  The prom dance looked as though it was a scene from a Nicholas Sparks tearjerker (no offense meant to Sparks who is definitely a good drama writer).  But Contagion, being an action-adventure-thriller, failed to give a thrilling sequence (with impact similar to the holocaust in Schindler's List).  I was expecting something more from the movie.  But then, it reached its end without detaching my back from the theater seat out of sudden response to a heart stopping scene.  The mass grave burial scene could have been a highly moving scene, but it was weakly executed.  The movie untimely ended by showing the origin of the virus--- a bat and pig viral mix. And you would say to yourself, "ah, so that's the cause".  Then, you regrettably stand from your seat, and as you look at the credits on the silver screen as you leave, inside you-- you are clamoring for more.  

With due fairness to Director, Steven Soderbergh, who helmed Traffic and the remake of Ocean’s Eleven,  overall, Contagion is a good movie.  It succeeded to convey the message that this type of pandemic is possible.  The movie re-awakened the public’s awareness of the threat of a viral scare.  People who have seen the movie would be more conscious of their sanitation and overall health.  

Rating (based on 5 Stars): 

3.75 Stars