CONTAGION

“CONTAGION” (Matt Damon, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet & Marion Cotillard)

This film is meant to frighten hypochondriacs and germophobes. Not being either of those, I wasn’t frightened at all by this so-called ‘gripping’, ‘pulse-pounding’ film. What made the movie even slightly interesting to me was the political aspect it brought forth – That in this country the gap being the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ is widening with every breath a Republican politician takes.
So while the film is full of well-known actors playing bit roles as people who are probably going to die, the only one I found intriguing was Jude law’s Alan Krumwiede; a conspiracy theorist blogger who catches the disease, gets a hold of an experimental drug that counteracts the virus and begins to expose the medical profession and their link to the filthy rich that controls the government. “Why isn’t this drug being given to the people?” Alan asks Laurence Fishburne’s Dr. Cheever during a nationally televised debate.
“Because it hasn’t passed safety regulations,” the doctor replies, obviously lying as the sweat forms on his brow.
Of course Alan’s proclamations don’t help matters as riots break out across the country from the filthy poor that are told there isn’t enough vaccine – for them...

That’s the interesting part of “Contagion”, unfortunately the bulk of the film centers on the disease – how fast it’s spreading and how did it get into the United States.
And in doing that the film frequently feels like a documentary. Maps with large red blotches are shown and it’s just as dangerous as during presidential elections as the red blotches are bad. Newscasters smile wistfully as they project the number of humans expected to die from the virus in millions.

Mitch Emhoff’s wife, Beth, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, returns from a trip to Hong Kong looking pale and weak. Soon she goes into convulsions and Mitch (Matt Damon) rushes her to the hospital. When the doctor comes out and informs Mitch that he ‘did all he could do’ to save his wife, Mitch responds, “Well, can I talk to her?”
A few days later, Mitch’s son gets sick and dies. Although Damon does a decent job playing someone who is immune to the disease, his character doesn’t seem to get all that angry or does much grieving after losing his wife & son suddenly and mysteriously. He has a daughter that wasn’t home when mom brought the disease into the house, so he has to protect her and I guess he makes that his main focus instead of going into shock with grief.
Marion Cotillard as Dr. Lenora Orantes is put into a dangerous position (I won’t reveal why) but just as her predicament intensifies, the movie leaves her story dangling without coming back to check on what’s happening to her. When she finally returns to the screen, there isn’t much revealed on what she’s been going through with her dilemma and the resolve just kind of fizzles out...
Big names, such as Demetri Martin (seriously, someone hired him to ‘act’ in a film after ‘Taking Woodstock’?) & I-thought-he-died-years-ago, Elliott Gould play doctors (the latter more convincingly than the former)
& Bryan Cranston, becoming quite the bit player in his burgeoning film career, plays the head of the military that’s forced to keep the undeserving of medical treatment paupers in line...
As I said, if you’re one of those people that won’t shake hands with anyone or wears gloves all the time in fear of catching something nasty from your fellow diseased-riddled humans, you’ll probably be horrified by this non-gripping, pulse slowing, non-action flick. But if you like to see one over-rated actress bite the big one before her bland acting style starts to annoy you, then there’s at least one scene in ‘Contagion’ that you’ll enjoy as much as I did..
Otherwise, it’s a showcase for Jude Law to look unattractive (I couldn’t keep my eyes off of that crooked tooth!) and act quite the oddball even though he’s the only voice of reality in this film. It has its moments, thanks to Jude, but overall, it’s kind of boring...