‘Contagion’ Review: The Argument for Hand Sanitizer

There were a lot of reasons I wanted to watch Contagion – the promising ensemble cast, Steven Soderbergh’s direction, the chance to see my hometown (Hong Kong) featured in a movie, the intriguingly scary plotline– suffice to say, I had big expectations for this one. Fortunately, I can also say that the film has met– and even exceeded– them.

We are plunged into the world of Contagion via a black screen. We hear nothing but the sounds of a woman coughing her lungs out, and if that wasn’t enough to freak out the audience, the next shot of a sans-makeup, foaming-at-the-mouth Gwyneth Paltrow will. She plays Beth Emhoff, an executive at a big company and the virus’ first victim. After a groundbreaking ceremony for a new factory in Hong Kong, Beth flies home to Minneapolis and immediately begins to display symptoms of the unidentified virus. No one knows what’s going on, but one thing is clear: the virus acts fast, and kills fast. Within a couple of days of going home Beth dies, leaving her behind her confused and grief-stricken husband, Mitch (Matt Damon).

Poster courtesy of Warner Bros.

What ensues is an interconnected web of stories that forms the basis of the film. Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the Center for Disease Control sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to Minneapolis to investigate Beth’s death. On the frontline is Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard), a World Health Organization representative sent to Hong Kong to try to track the origins of the virus. Behind the scenes, Dr Ally Hextal (played by a wonderful Jennifer Ehle of Pride and Prejudice fame) provides the movie’s scientific voice, trying to find a vaccination for the deadly disease. While there are plenty of heroes trying to stop the pandemic, there are also people who seek to profit from it, including Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), a slimy blogger with millions of followers who tries to make a buck or two by exploiting the public.

What makes Contagion such a good quasi-apocalyptic film is its plausibility. Yes, the world does become a living hell, but it is not a melodramatic tale of survival and morals. Nor is it a giant public service announcement about the benefits of washing your hands frequently. It strikes a careful balance between the two, and is clinical enough without being a straight on documentary.

The whole film is saturated in a sickly yellow tint, conducive to the overall ominous mood of the world in Contagion. The passage of time is very documentary-esque, and indicated through subtitles (“Day 1”, “Day 2”, etc) while locations are marked with both the name of the city and the population. If the audience doesn’t realize how high the stakes are, Soderbergh reminds them with the subtitles every couple of scenes: the larger the population, the more deaths there will be. Another technique worth mentioning is the long, lingering shots on train poles, cups, tables, chairs and other inanimate objects. The implication is obvious – the virus is everywhere, and anyone could be the next victim. Those shots are haunting, and is possibly even scarier than the shots of bodies piling up.

Moreover, the movie is studded with stars– but that does not mean that Contagion is some frivolous Hollywood blockbuster. They play decidedly unglamorous roles, which just adds to the credibility of the film. If the doctors are the scientific voice of the film, then Matt Damon’s character is the human voice. Trying to live their lives as normally as possible in a Minneapolis that has spiraled out of control from looting and violence, Mitch still retains his humanity because he tries his best to take care of his daughter. He is overprotective (there is one scene where he physically wrestles his daughter’s boyfriend off of her to keep them from kissing and possibly contracting the virus) but what parent wouldn’t be in times like these? There is also a very poignant scene towards the end of the film where he tries to recreate a high school prom for his daughter in the living room of their house because the schools have been closed. In times like these, it’s the little things that count.

It has to be appreciated that the film’s script is not dumbed down for the public. Scott Z. Burns’ (An Inconvenient Truth, The Bourne Ultimatum) screenplay is smart and sleek, and the pacing is just right at 105 minutes. What Burns does with his screenplay is not make you wonder who will die next (although a lot of people do die), but at how humanity reacts to a pandemic on this scale.  Contagion deals with the notion of “what if” and that is what makes it so disturbing. We should thank our lucky stars that this hasn’t actually happened, but who’s to say that it won’t happen in the future?

Sleek, smart and scary, Contagion will make you want to dunk your whole body in antibacterial sanitizer as soon as you leave the theater. A

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