Now Playing: Contagion (2011)

Today was the opening day for the film Contagion. I had heard some good things early on, but avoided any real reviews of it beyond that. I also hadn't seen any trailers for this, but I knew it had a pretty large cast of well know actors. I've seen another film similar to this called Outbreak and I quite liked that movie, so I had similar hopes for this one. I know Outbreak isn't the greatest movie, but it has a lot of tension and stress to find the cure, and I was hoping for something similar to that from Contagion. Also, should you see this movie on the big screen? I'll address that along with the rest of my impressions on the other side of the break.


There isn't much of a storyline I can outline, at least with any ease. It should be no surprise that this movie is about a new virus outbreak with extremely deadly results. There is a huge cast and their characters vary widely from a head of the CDC (Laurence Fishburn), to a rumour mongering blogger (Jude Law), to a father (Matt Damon) just trying to keep his family safe.

I want to say right off the top that I did enjoy this film. As far as I can tell it's highly accurate and realistic in its depiction of how events could unfold, and how the CDC and governments would likely react to such a situation. It is not, however, without flaws.

Gwyneth Paltrow... not looking so hot...

For starters, one of the genres listed for this film is "action". I'm sorry, but I can barely remember any moments of action in the entire movie. I'm really not sure what this relates to, but if there's any action, there's very little. Let's just be aware of that. Instead this is a fairly slow paced thriller with a lot of psychological fears that get in your head as you watch it. How many times do we touch our face in a day? How much in an hour? How many things to we touch that other people have touched? How much harm could possibly come from pressing that elevator button? So while I don't hold the lack of action against the film, just don't go in expecting the new Dawn of the Dead.

Matt Damon just wants to keep his family safe. Unfortunately, there's not much a regular father can do.

One of the actual issues I had with the film is with the passage of time. Unlike most films that take place over a few days or weeks, this movie spans months. Because of this, large tracks of time are passed by, and while it gives a day counter, like "Day 30" popping up on the screen, eventually that didn't seem to mean much when we start skipping weeks at a time. It just felt like I was missing out on things that were happening.

Also, we eventually become more distant from the medical characters working on the virus, and spend more time with the more social characters, like the father who is out in the world having to live with what's going on as best he can. This is primarily because, unlike in Outbreak, the medical and scientific processes are shown for what they really are, a slow, steady numbers game. I just wanted more drama to the science side of it, but instead they glossed over a lot of that in favor for press conferences and meetings of officials.

There's not much else to say. The acting on all parties involved was very good. The characters were all genuine and seemed natural. Even the look of the world as the virus and fear takes hold of the world is scarily mesmerizing. I think I just wish it had a bit more of a story and showed it more. Instead this is really more of a character piece of all these different people in this very deadly situation.

Even though I know I've been sounding very negative during this review, I would still recommend it. I'm not sure if it's necessarily a movie that needs to be seen in the theater. It could probably be enjoyed just as well at home as a Netflix rental. Another weird side effect of being in the theater, is that this movie seems to get into people's minds, and while I watched it I would hear more and more people cough, or clear their throat. I think it's probably like when one person yawns, it will cause another to also yawn. Whatever the case, it was quite annoying, but obviously not something that will happen in every screening. If you do happen to check it out, leave a comment and let me know what you thought!