Contagion
Year: 2011
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow & Kate Winslet
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: 15
Publoished: 19/08/21
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow & Kate Winslet
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: 15
Publoished: 19/08/21
In December 2019, in the Wuhan province of China, a human contracted a virus that humanity has never faced before. By early 2020 the virus had spread rapidly throughout Europe and Asia before working its way over to the Americas. As of writing this review, the world has been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, for approximately nine months. For countries that have suffered relatively few cases, life has been disrupted and changes made to everyday life. But for the worst hit countries such as Italy, United States of America, and here in the United Kingdom, life as we know it has changed drastically with each day posing new challenges, and new risks of infection. Whilst health organisations around the world are working towards creating a vaccine for the virus, there is no light at the end of the tunnel just yet.
With the amount of time that has passed since the virus and the number of developments that have been made, I felt like it was time to revisit a film I watched roughly eight years ago. A film that I thought was boring, mostly because I naïvely didn’t ever think something like what we are currently experiencing could happen in modern society. Understandably it had a massive resurgence in the early months of 2020 because of its frighteningly accurate depiction of what a modern-day pandemic would look like. That film is Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller, Contagion.
I’m going to take a moment before I dive into Contagion to say that this is a difficult film to review given the current circumstances, and whilst I won’t necessarily say whether the film is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, I will say Contagion is worth watching in light of everything that’s happened. Many of the issues I had with the film years ago are still present, but having now lived through an experience similar to that of the film I will mainly be critiquing the accuracy of the film.
The plot of Contagion follows multiple characters over roughly six months, from the day of the outbreak, until shortly after vaccines are rolled out.
Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from her business trip in Hong Kong feeling unwell. She has a headache, high fever, and a bad cough. Within two days her young son has contracted her illness and they both die from their symptoms. Meanwhile similar deaths have also been reported in various places around the world.
Beth’s husband Mitch (Matt Damon) has not had any symptoms whatsoever and is tested by a local hospital and medical experts, he is deemed immune from the virus. He then takes his daughter from a previous marriage home and attempts to keep her safe from the rapidly growing number of cases.
Dr. Ellis Cheever (Lawrence Fishburne) is a high-ranking member of staff at the CDC. He enlists the aid of Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslett) who together aim to track down where the virus originated from, and anyone who was in contact with Beth Emhoff.
Conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwide (Jude Law) circulates a video online of one of the fist victims of the virus dying on a bus in China. He uses his online platform to spread false information about the virus and criticise the health organisations who are trying to produce a vaccine.
Though there are more characters in Contagion, these are the main ones, and they form the basis of many of the major plot developments in the film. The performances are all ok at best. I don’t really feel like any of them stand out particularly, in fact I actually feel like most of them are relatively subdued and underwhelming in comparison to other films these actors have been in. Jude Law to me stands out amongst the rest, but it may simply be that much of his performance is an act anyway. His character seeks nothing more than fame and money, much like many of the fearmongers’ that have been abusing their social media powers. Speaking of which I find it interesting how technology is used in the film. Rather than being something that affects the characters directly, technology is usually where the characters are able to share their experiences and information relevant to them to people outside of the films focus. So why is it there if it’s not really important to the film? I mean that’s a waste of screen time and ultimately makes little sense from a cinematic perspective. But it does communicate that the information being are using to learn about the virus is coming from people who are living through it, much like how we have interacted with each other during the current pandemic. I have encountered countless types of people like Jude Law’s character over the last few months and that’s perhaps why his performance sticks out most in my mind, because it’s an incredibly accurate portrayal of what these types of people are like.
With the amount of time that has passed since the virus and the number of developments that have been made, I felt like it was time to revisit a film I watched roughly eight years ago. A film that I thought was boring, mostly because I naïvely didn’t ever think something like what we are currently experiencing could happen in modern society. Understandably it had a massive resurgence in the early months of 2020 because of its frighteningly accurate depiction of what a modern-day pandemic would look like. That film is Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller, Contagion.
I’m going to take a moment before I dive into Contagion to say that this is a difficult film to review given the current circumstances, and whilst I won’t necessarily say whether the film is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, I will say Contagion is worth watching in light of everything that’s happened. Many of the issues I had with the film years ago are still present, but having now lived through an experience similar to that of the film I will mainly be critiquing the accuracy of the film.
The plot of Contagion follows multiple characters over roughly six months, from the day of the outbreak, until shortly after vaccines are rolled out.
Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from her business trip in Hong Kong feeling unwell. She has a headache, high fever, and a bad cough. Within two days her young son has contracted her illness and they both die from their symptoms. Meanwhile similar deaths have also been reported in various places around the world.
Beth’s husband Mitch (Matt Damon) has not had any symptoms whatsoever and is tested by a local hospital and medical experts, he is deemed immune from the virus. He then takes his daughter from a previous marriage home and attempts to keep her safe from the rapidly growing number of cases.
Dr. Ellis Cheever (Lawrence Fishburne) is a high-ranking member of staff at the CDC. He enlists the aid of Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslett) who together aim to track down where the virus originated from, and anyone who was in contact with Beth Emhoff.
Conspiracy theorist Alan Krumwide (Jude Law) circulates a video online of one of the fist victims of the virus dying on a bus in China. He uses his online platform to spread false information about the virus and criticise the health organisations who are trying to produce a vaccine.
Though there are more characters in Contagion, these are the main ones, and they form the basis of many of the major plot developments in the film. The performances are all ok at best. I don’t really feel like any of them stand out particularly, in fact I actually feel like most of them are relatively subdued and underwhelming in comparison to other films these actors have been in. Jude Law to me stands out amongst the rest, but it may simply be that much of his performance is an act anyway. His character seeks nothing more than fame and money, much like many of the fearmongers’ that have been abusing their social media powers. Speaking of which I find it interesting how technology is used in the film. Rather than being something that affects the characters directly, technology is usually where the characters are able to share their experiences and information relevant to them to people outside of the films focus. So why is it there if it’s not really important to the film? I mean that’s a waste of screen time and ultimately makes little sense from a cinematic perspective. But it does communicate that the information being are using to learn about the virus is coming from people who are living through it, much like how we have interacted with each other during the current pandemic. I have encountered countless types of people like Jude Law’s character over the last few months and that’s perhaps why his performance sticks out most in my mind, because it’s an incredibly accurate portrayal of what these types of people are like.
My biggest issue with Contagion when I watched it eight years ago is that the story to me didn’t seem to flow organically, and that issue is still present now in some respects. I feel like this type of story is better served as a TV series. Due to the amount of characters the film juggles, and the speed at which the film moves, it can occasionally be difficult to keep up with everything. A series would have allowed for the pace to be slowed down and the individual stories to be greatly expanded. As such Contagion feels cramped, overstuffed for want of a better word. I mean the whole thing is less than 2 hours in length and because of that it never gets to linger long enough on some of the important things that happen. Because it juggles so many characters nobody gets a lot of screen time. In fact, some of the big players in the story only get mere minutes on screen over the course of the entire film. It seems like a waste of big talent, especially when their performances were so underwhelming.
But the best parts of the film are its accuracy to a real modern pandemic, and the score. Cliff Martinez’s soundtrack really makes the film move, it gives it a pulse and it’s a fast one at that. It makes me nervous listening to it and only makes the intensity of the situation so much worse. It is simply superb for the type of film this is and the way it is structured.
Now onto the bigger topic of realism. As I stated earlier when I watched this last time I lost interest because I simply couldn’t ever see something like this happening. But now that it has I can look at the film with fresh eyes and tell you that it hit the nail pretty much on the head. The scenes of mass panic are horrifying, the empty shop shelves, the looting, the violence in the streets over people not obeying the rules. Living in London they are scenes I have come accustomed to, nowhere near the scale that the film portrays, but scenes I have seen all the same. I’ll never forget walking through supermarkets with barren shelves, the fear of hearing someone cough nearby, the feeling of everything you touch being dangerous. Contagion communicates these feelings and fears extremely well and without dialogue much of the time. Even when the film is not actively trying to scare you, early in the film before the pandemic has truly begun, there are shots of people coughing and touching things. Something that many years ago would have been invisible to most viewers because of how small the detail is but are now anxiety inducing. Seeing characters who feel ill out in public and interacting with large numbers of people is a horrifying thing to watch because we now know the damage that can cause.
Has COVID-19 made Contagion a better film? As trivial as that question is in the grand scheme of things, yes it has. But the resolution of the virus is shown in Contagion and we are not yet there, so considering how accurate much of the rest of the film is I can only suggest we continue to look towards it for hope that we will soon make it out of this terrible time. There are many things I am going to take away from the film that will hopefully go on to help me in day to day life whilst we continue to find our way through this pandemic. So, if you have not yet seen Contagion I do recommend that you do so. But only when you are ready as the subject matter is understandably still very fresh in many people’s minds. It’s a film that even just a year ago I would have said to ignore, but now it’s a film I suggest you take quite seriously. Good film or not, there’s a lot to learn from it.
But the best parts of the film are its accuracy to a real modern pandemic, and the score. Cliff Martinez’s soundtrack really makes the film move, it gives it a pulse and it’s a fast one at that. It makes me nervous listening to it and only makes the intensity of the situation so much worse. It is simply superb for the type of film this is and the way it is structured.
Now onto the bigger topic of realism. As I stated earlier when I watched this last time I lost interest because I simply couldn’t ever see something like this happening. But now that it has I can look at the film with fresh eyes and tell you that it hit the nail pretty much on the head. The scenes of mass panic are horrifying, the empty shop shelves, the looting, the violence in the streets over people not obeying the rules. Living in London they are scenes I have come accustomed to, nowhere near the scale that the film portrays, but scenes I have seen all the same. I’ll never forget walking through supermarkets with barren shelves, the fear of hearing someone cough nearby, the feeling of everything you touch being dangerous. Contagion communicates these feelings and fears extremely well and without dialogue much of the time. Even when the film is not actively trying to scare you, early in the film before the pandemic has truly begun, there are shots of people coughing and touching things. Something that many years ago would have been invisible to most viewers because of how small the detail is but are now anxiety inducing. Seeing characters who feel ill out in public and interacting with large numbers of people is a horrifying thing to watch because we now know the damage that can cause.
Has COVID-19 made Contagion a better film? As trivial as that question is in the grand scheme of things, yes it has. But the resolution of the virus is shown in Contagion and we are not yet there, so considering how accurate much of the rest of the film is I can only suggest we continue to look towards it for hope that we will soon make it out of this terrible time. There are many things I am going to take away from the film that will hopefully go on to help me in day to day life whilst we continue to find our way through this pandemic. So, if you have not yet seen Contagion I do recommend that you do so. But only when you are ready as the subject matter is understandably still very fresh in many people’s minds. It’s a film that even just a year ago I would have said to ignore, but now it’s a film I suggest you take quite seriously. Good film or not, there’s a lot to learn from it.