Should You Catch "Contagion" in Theaters?

I don’t usually find those “earth is under attack” movies all that frightening. The prospect of flesh-eating zombies knocking at my door is miniscule at best and the threat of a giant lizard attack is even slimmer. But “Contagion” did scare me because its monster is very real and kills millions of people every year.

Reminiscent of Randy Shilts’ “And The Band Played On,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” tracks the outbreak of a flu-like, super-virus that spreads across the globe, starting with a suburban mother (Gwyneth Paltrow) and ending with a death toll nearing the millions. Along the way we meet doctors, researchers, journalists, CDC officials and patients from around the world played by a starry ensemble cast. 

What “Contagion” does really well is create the sense of paranoia needed in thrillers like this. Here there are no weapons, except the ones in all of us and on every tabletop and door knob, no bombs or car chases. Largely set up through a beautifully crafted opening sequence, the paranoia comes from tight shots of a hand grasping the stem of a wine glass, opening a door, holding onto a pole on the bus. A CDC official later tells us that the average person touches their face around 18 times an hour. No one is safe. This is the point in the film you’re probably regretting your decision to share that popcorn.

The other thing the film does right is not polarize its characters the way a cheaper movie might have. The researchers and doctors, especially Laurence Fishburne’s Dr. Cheever, aren’t portrayed as Christ-like figures but as flawed human being trying to do their best in a bad situation. On the flip side, a popular blogger (Jude Law) with more than his fair share of conspiracy theories isn’t played as a fool. A bit naïve and over-zealous, perhaps, but maybe he is speaking the gospel truth.

Because I liked the treatment of the characters and the actors are all top-notch, it seemed a shame how little they were given to do. “Contagion” tries to go for the worldwide scope of the epidemic, checking in with patients and doctors all over the globe. While the concept sounds good on paper, it creates a film that never quite settles down. What happened to Marion Cotillard’s character while she was in Japan? What is Kate Winslet’s backstory? What became of Dr. Sussman, played by Elliot Gould, after he discovered the virus? None of those questions are ever answered, the film just moves on to another story, another batch of characters. Films like this try to create a rich tapestry, and this one moderately succeeds. But the result is a tapestry with a lot of loose, hanging threads.

The concept behind “Contagion” is solid, playing on the fears we all have, the fears that get repeated every night on the 11 o’clock news. Soderbergh smartly grounds the film firmly in reality – all the science in the film seems real and, according to the credits, was backed by a list of real doctors  -- which gives the movie a sense of weight and urgency about it.

But, too often it relies on creepy thriller music and flashy visuals instead of real human emotion. The film needed to get down and dirty, but felt like it was always looking through the Plexiglas window of the isolation unit. It needed more blood and guts (both metaphorically and literally) and a less generous squirt of Purell.