Contagion
2011
***½
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould
A business woman from Minneapolis contracts a deadly virus, which quickly spreads death and chaos across the world. Apart from her husband, who attempts to protect what's left of the family, the story follows a WHO scientist who travels to the source of the infection, a government agent who tries to contain the outbreak on the U.S. soil, a handful of virologists who attempt to develop a vaccine, and a blogger who is convinced of a conspiracy. All of these story strands do not come together in a fully satisfying fashion, but this thriller is never less than gripping. It all starts like your average disaster film. There's an A-list cast and a catastrophe which threatens their lives. However, Steven Soderbergh doesn't offer overblown melodrama like The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno, or silly chase scenes and last minute miracle cures like Outbreak. His approach to the drama and his big name stars is pragmatic and unsentimental. The film is bookended with two dialogue-free scenes which brilliantly convey the outbreak of the virus.
