Contagion [Blu-ray] [2011] [US Import]

Contagion follows an all star cast (Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslett, Lawrence Fishbourne (to name but a few) during the outbreak of a deadly virus which rapidly spreads across the world, killing 1 in 4 who it comes into contact with.

When I purchased this movie, I was expecting "28 Days Later" or similar but actually the feel for this movie is very different. Its focus is clearly on realism - with every scene feeling like it is something which could really happen were the situation real. It closely follows both the CDC/WHO response to the virus, as well as the families of some of the key victims. The biggest positive about this movie for me is that it was implemented very well - it didn't try to make the government look like heroes as you often get in movies like this (the president is hiding in his bunker and the helicopters are being used to fly around politicians instead of rescuing ground workers) and equally it doesn't try to damn them (e.g. Members of the CDC get kidnapped and killed during the infection trying to help others). For me this was realistic and gave a balanced view of some of the things that would be likely in such a situation and this movie does that well throughout.

<The next two paragraphs contain spoilers - Skip to final paragraph to avoid>

The tag line for this movie is "Nothing spreads like fear" and that is something else the movie tackles cleverly, Jude Law's character plans a failing journalist who's passion is blogging and takes the virus as an opportunity to win himself millions of followers by spreading fear, paranoia and revolt against the CDC - and of course millions follow him, many ending up dying because they follow his instructions on a bogus herbal "cure" instead of awaiting the government vaccination programme. The contrast between how many people died through just bad luck in catching the virus and how many people let fear drive them to their own death was clear.

Despite these things, the mixed reviews on Amazon for this movie didn't really surprise me. When the movie ended I groaned a little because it just wasn't what I expected - the last thirty minutes of the movie see one of the lead doctors try a vaccine on herself and strike it lucky first time - which I found hard to believe. And the movie wraps itself up quickly after that and didn't really follow through much on how the vaccine would be distributed, despite making quite a big deal over the fact that only a few countries had the formula for it and were busy hiding it away throughout the movie - why not make the movie a bit longer and tackle the distribution globally a little more?

I must admit though, despite not being thrilled with the ending I did find this was a film that I went away and thought about afterwards and as I did I found my opinion of it kept getting better. It is in fact an unexpectedly "real" account of what could happen in a real pandemic and despite a few dramatic jumps seeming too convenient, it does a really good job of making you think about what a situation like that would be like, how it would be handled and more interestingly how you would react. I'd recommend you give it a go, just don't set your expectations for a "28 Days Later" type movie and you won't be disappointed.

Contagion is the story of a viral-outbreak and the ensuing global response. Praised by critics and those in the know for it's abject realism and realistic portrayal of CDC responses and WHO procedure. It follows CDC employees Dr Erin Mears (Winslet) & Dr Cheever (Fishburne) as they try to find the source of this virus in the ensuing chaos of quarantines and travel-restrictions. Meanwhile, internet blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) says he has the cure to the disease - a homeopathic remedy that the masses go crazy for, but does he hold the answer or is he just another false-prophet?

This is Soderbergh's attempt at an ultra-realistic portrayal of a pandemic, it follows multiple people through the throes of infection to the people around them and how humans actually react when faced with the death of their loved ones. Some deal with it stoically, some panic whilst others cheat & steal to protect their own. The cast is filled with stars (Damon, Paltrow, Fishburne, Winslet, Law, Cotillard to name the majority) that all portray their roles within this thriller with great aplomb. Literally no-one is open for ridicule here, I was enthralled for the duration as it deals with weighty issues such as mass-hysteria, crowd-mentality and how political bias corrupts procedure (Congressmen being evacuated in CDC planes instead of staff etc). It's not an easy film to make but it had me captivated from the off.

I personally think this will divide it's audience, you are either going to love the realism, or get bogged down by it, and there really is no middle-ground. I found it refreshing in many respects and a truly novel film (28 Days Later, this ain't) that doesn't dramatise this highly plausible concept. Thought-provoking, terrifying in it's possibility and well-acted throughout. Highly Recommended!!

I'm not going to go into this and write a large well rounded review as there are other reviews that do this, im just going to give you the main point this film comes down to.

I sat through the whole film and enjoyed it, it wasn't what i'd call thrilling or exciting but was enjoyable and felt realistic for an event that could actually happen. As a result the end of the film came and an on set of "is that it" dawned on me. This didn't ruin the film for me but it leads me to my main point, as someone interested in science who studied this sort of thing at A level it was a very entertaining and had a very documentative feel to it. You feel like you learn how easily something like this can spiral out of control and is very much entertainment for those of an academic nature and a nice surprise for others.

As a result if your a film buff looking for exciting plotlines and stories you'll probably be dissapointed with it generallly. The acting seems to focus on realism for the situation but theres nothing to exciting about it as the story doesnt really call for it. This isn't another disaster movie for action/thriller fans, If however you take an interest in science, media, medical, Disaster planning or just generally enjoy to broarden your mind then this is deffinately worth a go.