Movie Review: Contagion

            Stepping into theater 4 for Contagion, I had just decided to start up this blog, and I had no idea what to expect from this movie. Disaster movies have taken a downturn in both prevalence and quality, so the future looked dim for Contagion. However, I was taken aback and pleasantly surprised with the story quality and pacing the movie had to offer.

            The story starts on day 2 of the disease’s development, and little do we know where its point of origin or even how it mutated into something that’s contagious to humans. All we know is that the woman we’re introduced to is sick and on her way home from a business trip in China, and that every one of the people in the opening somehow have contracted this virus, even though they live in separate areas of the world. When she gets home, the next day she’s in her kitchen and her hand goes numb. She drops her coffee cup and goes into convulsions. A mere two days after contracting the mystery disease, she ends up in the hospital and dies.

            And this is only the beginning. Her son goes not two days after her, and the disease begins to sweep across not just the country, but the entire world, and people panic that there’s no known cure, point of origin, or even a name for this virus that’s wiping out entire blocks of communities. The WHO (World Health Organization) gets involved, as well as the CDC, and the virus’ first spreading is tracked. We see that the people who first died of the virus all came into contact with Gwyneth Paltrow’s character on her business trip. The slightest brush of the hand on something she had touched spread this deadly virus, and it’s only at the end we see how the virus began (I won’t say in case you see the movie for yourself), but it explains the sequence in its DNA (bat, bat, pig, pig, bat).

Jude Law's jerky reporter

            In the beginning of the movie, I was sort of upset they didn’t show day 1 of virus development, but the writer in me knew there was a reason behind it. It gave us a suspense factor that couldn’t be shaken through the entire film (where the heck did it come from, anyway???). The characters were believable and I found myself connecting with them. I really liked Kate Winslet’s character and hated it when she…ah, but then too much would be said ;) . Jude Law played the butthead journalist who spreads false information about how to protect the body against the virus, and I wanted to punch him (which is a good thing; antagonists who don’t antagonize are sissies and should be dropped into a pit of forgetfulness). Lawrence Fishburn was also sort of a jerk, but Matt Damon gave us a good protagonist/hero figure who was just trying to protect his daughter from the virus.

            One thing I didn’t understand was why the WHO representative sent to China (Marion Cotillard) rushed back to the village she’d been abducted to after finding out they were given placebo vaccinations in a bluff to free her. Granted, I’d want to know what happened to them, too, but there was no reason I could see for her to go back there if there was no way to save them (if someone knows, please leave us a comment). Other than that, the movie was a great success for the disaster genre. 4 kernels out of 5.

            One last comment. Thank you, Contagion, for making me aware of every single thing I touch in the run of a day. Thank you.