“Contagion”, the new medical thriller from director Steven Soderbergh, takes a grim look at the mutation of a super virus. The story follows several Oscar winning actors—portraying both government officials and average citizens—as they try to deal with the outbreak of the disease. With such an all-star cast, including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law, I had high expectations for the movie.
However, the tagline for the movie: “Nothing spreads like fear”, did not quite live up to its expectation. The film depicts the spread of the disease and the reactions of the people, but the fear is never really felt in the tone of the movie. The characters seem very flat and unemotional about the death of millions of loved ones. Even with so many great actors, there are just to many characters to make the movie effective. There is not enough time dedicated to developing each character and so they remain relatively lifeless.
What the movie does do successfully is create a sort of “reality show” feeling. The movie feels very believable and the way it is filmed has almost a documentary essence to it. While it will not have you crying for the death of a character or gasping when another is nearly infected, it will have you washing your hands often and panicking every time you cough, even slightly.