Cantagion: A review.

Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion could not have come out at a better time. Contagion, a film depicting a catastrophic epidemic, opens on the weekend of the ten year anniversary (strange to call it an anniversary) of the tragic events of September 11. It is hard to not think about the aftermath of 9/11 and its affect on the world populace and I think it is best to keep these thoughts in mind while watching this great film. 

Let’s get the “well duh’s” out of the way. The film looks fantastic. The directing is spot on. The pacing is swift and the film is entertaining throughout. All of this comes with a Soderbergh film. What did stand out to me even more was how improvisational each scene felt. The pauses, the stuttering, the “uhs,” all feel organic and genuine. Scenes that lesser movies would have made cliché come off as authentic. Deaths come at a shock to characters who can’t take it in immediately.  Only when several months have passed is when it finally hits. And it hits hard. The dialogue and acting, involving Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne and many more, easily makes these people feel like real people and that this horrible epidemic is really happening. 

What Contagion also does well is creating tension early on, just by showing everyday habits everyone does that nobody thinks about doing. Knowing that the virus could be transmitted by a touch or a cough, any focus on a door handle, a hand rail, a handshake, a hotel bed all carry a huge weight and significance. Each of these seemingly small and irrelevant objects and gestures  could potentially carry a massive death sentence. Knowing the encroaching doom that is bound to occur really creates a tense and scary experience. 

But on a closer look, through all of the tragedy and horror, there are glimmers of hope in the film: A sick patient trying desperately to reach over and lend a cold patient her blanket; a man giving up his vaccine for another less advantaged child; concern over someone’s well-being instead of whether they will get them sick. Moments like this are sprinkled throughout the horror and the rioting and the anarchism. Soderbergh isn’t interested in shedding a too bright light on horrifying events, but he does recognize the strength and warmth that can make shape and reveal itself.

Which brings me back to my previous point. Because the aftermath of 9/11 was present in my mind, Contagion became a little more than just an entertaining film, but an incredibly moving one. A lot of the film is dire, hundreds of thousands of people are dying, people are robbing and kidnapping, rioting and chaos is rampant throughout the world and it represents this horror exceptionally well. But where Contagion truly shines is in these small, yet powerful moments of kindness that rise above the doom and gloom of the world just enough to keep one afloat.