Contagion: Review By thedude-abides

Sep 11th, 2011 by thedude-abides
"Crash," only without the conveniently, if not ridiculously converging story arcs.
  • OVERALL
    2.5
    WORTHY
  • Story
  • Acting
  • Directing
  • Visuals
When a new form of the h1n1 virus sweeps throughout the United States and other parts of the world, a mass effort for containment and prevention is underway. Gwyneth Paltrow is the first to contract the disease during a business trip to Hong Kong by way of some bad blood, ultimately acting as a carrier to spread the epidemic, but not before teaching her former lover a good ol' fashion lesson in morality. Matt Damon plays her husband, a man apparently immune to the virus and its effects trying to survive against the looting, hysteria-induced state of society. Kate Winslet is on the case, working feverishly as a doctor for the CDC to determine the origins of the virus. Jennifer Ehle is a scientist in search of a cure. Lawrence Fishburne, amassing the most screen time, is the spokesman. Jude Law is a freelance journalist trying to make his worldly fortune by claiming to have discovered a cure. Marion Cotillard is teaching English to Japanese school children. John Hawkes is a janitor. And I'm still trying to figure out why most of them were in the movie to begin with.

Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, The Informant) directs, although it is Soderbergh himself who seems to be suffering from a touch of the flu in the form of his apparent obsession with "The Dark Knight." So much so that Soderbergh employs many of the same directing techniques used by fellow director Christopher Nolan to the point that, if you closed your eyes and imagined a recurring baseline score, you'd think you were actually watching a cheap interpretation of a Nolan movie.

In fact, Soderbergh is so apparently enamored with the 2008 box office juggernaut, he even resorts to attaining the services of "Dark Knight" actors Monique Gabriela Curnen (otherwise known as the dirty cop, Ramirez) and Chin Han (otherwise known as Chinese crime lord, Lau), not to mention one of the stars from Nolan's newest Batman flick, Marion Cotillard. Nothing indicative of Soderbergh's prior work is on display here, only the remnants of a once original director teetering on the verge of retirement, who at this point is apparently more influenced by the work of another director than he is that of his own.

The honeymoon continues, however, for Matt Damon and Soderbergh, who for the sixth time are reunited with their work on the film, although it doesn't come without its share of dead bodies along the way. Perhaps what is the most horribly miscast film in recent memory, Contagion capitalizes on the long list of Oscar-winners and nominees in a shrewd effort to lure audiences into emptying their pockets for a show they're not going to get. From Marion Cotillard, to John Hawkes, and yes, even Matt Damon, the only question Contagion has audiences pondering isn't in terms of a cure, but rather why such lofty names are attached to roles that could just as easily have gone to lesser-known actors looking to make a name for themselves. Such was the case for actress Jennifer Ehle, who was the only person cast correctly in the entire film. And boy did it show. Case in point: Why cast Lawrence Fishburne as the lead in a film when you have Matt Damon?

Though Contagion is a captivating docudrama of suspense that plays on the events of the times to near perfection, when you get right down to it, it's nothing more than a series of convoluted stories, interconnected due to the fact that each provides a different perspective of the epidemic within the ranks of society, but sharing no commonality in order to congeal the story as a whole. Imagine "Crash," only without the conveniently, if not ridiculously converging story arcs.

Overall: 78/100

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Comments (22)

  1. thedude-abides

    @bugspray That's because my review is a dead-on accurate assessment and your comment couldn't be more off base. Deal with it.

    @slysnide Lol. Just saw this. Some converge, just not to the point of Crash is what I meant. It might be in passing, which was perhaps more realistic, but it did little to congeal the story the way Crash did.

    1 year agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  2. slysnide

    If the story arcs don't converge at all, then it can be nothing like "Crash." :P

    1 year agoby @slysnideFlag

  3. Dan

    @thedude-abides No, not yet. Prob this weekend or the next. Still short on that ching-o-la.

    2 years agoby @dan1Flag

  4. Bugspray

    Hi everyone!
    I have to apologize to you all: It seems Matt Damon was NOT in a fat suit in this movie! He gained weight! I guess (along with Rob Mcelhenney) it's now the cool thing to do! So since I like to get the details right I retract my Matt Damon fat suit comment . Anyway: I still totally enjoyed this movie about a fictional virus (MEV1 not H1N1) that causes a disastrous pandemic and am considering seeing it again this weekend. To all y'all who like to read a review that rips a movie but apparently can't tolerate a comment that rips a review: meh.
    ;)

    2 years agoby @bugsprayFlag

  5. thedude-abides

    @dan1 Lol!! Thanks, man. I'm like Skip Bayless when it comes to the responses I generate (pardon the reference if you're not familiar), although I'm still trying to figure out how my alluding to Paltrow's business trip to Japan makes me a racist :)

    Anyway, I'll be the first to admit that it's a harsh review, but nobody wants to sit here and read the same forgiving nonsense over and over. I figure everyone else is going to highlight the film's strong points, I may as well give my honest opinion in hopes of providing a different perspective for someone genuinely debating on seeing the movie or not. Anyway, have you seen it yet?

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  6. Dan

    And good review *cough* racist son of a bitch *cough*

    2 years agoby @dan1Flag

  7. Dan

    @thedude-abides I was going to compliment you on the review, then I read the comments, and just..... lol. You never, ever fail to produce a negative reaction from someone, do you? That's f*cking awesome lol

    2 years agoby @dan1Flag

  8. thedude-abides

    @moviegeek Thanks, buddy.

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  9. moviegeek

    Good, short review.

    2 years agoby @moviegeekFlag

  10. thedude-abides

    @bawnian-dexeus You'll like it then. It was a good film. I mean, I gave it a 78% rating, which isn't bad. It was the poor casting and lack of an overall story that I didn't like.

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  11. Bawnian©-Dexeus

    @thedude-abides Some people. Anyways, I may like it more simply because these films about man vs virus intrigue me at time, if done right.

    2 years agoby @bawnian-dexeusFlag

  12. thedude-abides

    @corey Thanks, buddy. Looking forward to reading yours.

    @ChiRep-1 Agreed. Those two did a great job. I thought Winslet was great as well.

    @bawnian-dexeus Lol. That's okay. He has no idea what he's talking about. It IS a variation of the h1n1, as they stated in the film, and it was Paltrow I said was coming back from Japan, not Ehle. Some people, huh?

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  13. Bawnian©-Dexeus

    @bugspray You could have just written "I disagree" rather than waste your first comment on this site acting like a troll.

    2 years agoby @bawnian-dexeusFlag

  14. ChiRep_1

    @thedude-abides Good review. I saw it earlier today and agreed, Damon was miscast along with a few others. Lawrence Fishburne and Jude Law were great however

    2 years agoby @ChiRep-1Flag

  15. Bugspray

    Crappy, inaccurate review. The virus is NOT H1N1. Jennifer Ehle's character is NOT in Japan (you racist.) People drawn to apocalyptic pandemic films will be getting exactly what they're looking for in this movie! And why NOT have big name actors in it? Big name actors are an excellent short cut so that a film maker doesn't need to devote precious minutes making the audience care about a character. How much "character revelation" did you want to sit through? This is a PANDEMIC we're talking about. Every life is important to that person and their friends and family. Good job film maker using familiar faces so that we audience members could rubber neck at the gore and social break down we came to see! A pandemic is a REALISTIC risk that could break out at ANY time. Anyone with a clue has wondered what it would be like if a serious, highly contagious flu broke out in modern times. The only really weird part was having Matt Damon in a fat suit. Your review sucked.

    2 years agoby @bugsprayFlag

  16. Corey W.

    @thedude-abides Excellent review, sir.

    2 years agoby @coreyFlag

  17. Bawnian©-Dexeus

    @thedude-abides I know the feeling.

    2 years agoby @bawnian-dexeusFlag

  18. thedude-abides

    @bawnian-dexeus You might like it better than I did. I thought it was good, but it was b.s. the way they marketed the film.

    @mr-eighty8 Lol. You know Damon is one of my favorites. I think if you saw it on HBO you wouldn't mind it as much.

    Thanks for commenting.

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  19. Mr_Eighty8

    Ha. Be expecting a make shift toaster bomb at your house courtesy, of Jason, I mean Matt Damon. I wasn't planning on seeing this, but this review just obliterated any chances of my eyes ever meeting this film. Good review though, you cruel, cruel bastard. Haha.

    2 years agoby @mr-eighty8Flag

  20. Bawnian©-Dexeus

    @thedude-abides Yeah, Tuesday

    2 years agoby @bawnian-dexeusFlag

  21. thedude-abides

    @bawnian-dexeus R u planning on seeing it?

    2 years agoby @thedude-abidesFlag

  22. Bawnian©-Dexeus

    Woah

    2 years agoby @bawnian-dexeusFlag