Contagion (2011) dir. Stephen Soderbergh,starring Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, runtime 106mins, cert 12a
A character in Contagion claims “No-one is immune to fear”. Stephen Soderbergh’s epidemic film shows how human nature can be almost as deadly as a fast-spreading disease. But, even with an
enviable cast, does Contagion go far enough to become an infectious success?
When Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes back from Hong Kong, she rapidly falls ill with a deadly, unidentifiable disease. People close to her succumb to the virus, and when the number of fatalities from around the world increases, the World Health Organisation and Centre for
Communicable Diseases (led by Lawrence Fishburne) begin to investigate and
search for a cure.
Jude Law plays a freelance journalist who encourages people not to trust the government and official organisations and buy his ‘alternative’ cure – a herb named Forsythia. To the film’s credit, it seems quite balanced; it portrays Law’s character as both savior and villain, as he manipulates peoples’ fear of the disease to sell his miracle cure. At the same time, the scientists working to find a cure are shown in a similar way. Of course they are the obvious choice for the title of hero in this film, but their inconsistencies and selfishness are revealed as they tip off close friends to leave the city before the roads are shut and secure limited stocks of the vaccine for themselves and their families.
Jude Law’s Alan Krumwiede is Australian – not that you’d guess it from the majority of Law’s performance. For all but a few words, he speaks entirely in his natural English accent. That
Alan is Australian is not integral to the story, so it’s hard to see why the dubious accent was pursued. Vocals aside, Law plays an excellent villain – he is easy to hate but his motivations are clear.
As Dr Orantes, a World Health Organisation scientist investigating the spread of the disease, Marion Cottilard is interesting and appropriately dramatic. It’s a shame, then, that her story remains largely undeveloped and for a lot of the film it feels like filmmakers forgot she was in the start of the film, wrapping her story up almost as an afterthought right at the end.
The film is rated 12A, meanin anyone under 12 can see a film if accompanied by an adult, but this rating is misleading. Any child under (and perhaps over) 12 is likely to be traumatised
by images of convulsions, dead bodies, animal testing and disease, to name a few.
The film is also threatening enough for an adult audience: watching the way humans fight each other and cause stampedes to get basic supplies and medication is a chilling footnote to what
might have happened if recent health scares like SARS and Swine Flu became much more widespread.
Although this isn’t the best film out this autumn, the threat feels very real and the acting is good enough that, after the film, you will always look at a person coughing or sneezing with a
certain degree of suspicion.
(photo by Ian Muttoo on Flickr)
