By ALISON LESTER
Managing Editor
Ever since I watched Contagion over Family Weekend with my parents, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. You could blame this on the fact that I coincidentally (or not so coincidentally?!) got sick three days later. But as intriguing as that conspiracy theory may be, the truth is that I have been pondering the movie ever since I left the theater.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Contagion is a paranoia-inducing and thought-invoking thriller that explores what would happen if a frightening new virus with no known cure quickly spread around the world, killing much of Earth’s human population. The movie is supported by an all-star cast. Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet are the big actors and actresses listed on the movie poster. However, Contagion features many other familiar celebrities whose names you may not recall, but whose faces you always recognize when you see them. For example, “Hey, it’s that guy who plays Monica and Ross’s dad!”
While all the big celebrity names are definitely appealing (and I admit was part of the draw for why I chose to see the movie), I felt like the characters featured were too numerous for the viewer to really connect with. All of their different stories, connected mostly by the virus outbreak, were squeezed into about an hour and forty five minutes, leaving many questions about their lives and fates. This may have been the writers’ intention, to make the viewers think more about these characters and come to their own conclusions, which I definitely have been doing ever since the credits started rolling.
While the acting in Contagion was generally decent, it wasn’t always convincing. Matt Damon, who played both the role of father and husband as Mitch Emhoff, represented how the virus outbreak impacted families. However, his reactions didn’t always make sense during certain situations. This may have been because his character was supposed to be in shock, but his facial expressions and tone were sometimes very off, eliciting giggles from my fellow moviegoers during what were supposed to be serious scenes. I’m usually impressed by Matt Damon as an actor, but his performance in Contagion was lacking.
The camera work in Contagion is impressive, with many shots taken from the point of view of many different infected people. The screen will go blurry and everything will suddenly sway to represent the physical deterioration of the virus’s victim. Seeing the world through the eyes of someone who has been infected by an unknown virus definitely amps up the fear that this movie generates. How would you react if you got infected, and nothing could save you?
Other than trying to further understand the movie’s characters, I keep thinking back to Contagion because a lot of its themes have to do with the bright and dark sides of human nature in relation to how we react in a crisis. While some people choose to be self-sacrificing and help those in need when everything falls apart, it’s disturbing to see how quickly normal people can degenerate into selfish people who don’t think twice about stealing, extorting, and even murdering in order to survive in these types of situations. Certain government reactions to the virus outbreak are also depicted, with some groups of people being saved over others for arguably racist, classist, and nationalist reasons. It’s scary to think of how easily all of this could happen.
There have been many movies before that have shown the collapse of humanity amidst various disasters, including epidemics, which makes Contagion‘s portrayal of this unfortunate phenomenon not very original. However, Contagion did a nice job showing step by step how this collapse can occur as the result of an unfamiliar pandemic. The movie also gave a nice boost of optimism by showing that not everyone chose to be selfish despite their lives being in danger.
I enjoyed the film and have spent a lot of time reflecting on it, but I probably won’t end up buying it. While Contagion definitely could have expanded more than it did by further exploring the main character’s lives, I recommend it for anyone who enjoys slow-moving thrillers that deal with the aftereffects of global disasters. Germaphobes, however, may want to avoid this movie at all costs.
