Steven Soderbergh has created a sterile, at-arms-reach viral thriller in Contagion that ultimately works, but still left me cold and somewhat indifferent. There’s a frightening reality to everything you see, but it’s all so contained the full scope of this viral disaster is never really felt despite its globetrotting plotline. Soderbergh doesn’t create much of an emotional attachment with any of the characters, so as they struggle and fight to stay alive against an invisible villain it’s hard to become emotionally invested.
Boasting a massive cast of who’s who in Hollywood, an Oscar winner can be found in damn near every scene as the story begins in Chicago, where Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) is on a layover from her flight from Hong Kong and she appears to have caught a cold. We learn immediately she’s having an affair with a man she knows in Chicago as her husband (Matt Damon) is back home waiting for her arrival. Shortly thereafter people in other cities across the globe begin coughing, convulsing and dying as an unknown enemy attacks their system. Where did it begin? How is it transmitted?
Soderbergh is vigilant in showing every touch of the hand, brush of the face and sneeze, with each scene containing any number of opportunities for the disease to be transmitted. You almost feel as if he handled the editing process dressed in a contamination suit, not wanting to get too close to it or become too attached himself. It’s that distance that I felt while watching causing me to not be able to become fully invested as technicality outweighed emotionality.
Attention to detail in Contagion is above and beyond thanks to tons of research put in by Soderbergh and the film’s screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. Scientists in search for a cure begin spouting long strings of dialogue I’d need to spend all day on WebMD to understand, but it isn’t presented in a way that leaves you wondering what they’re talking about. With each turn in the narrative you’re able to follow along as more and more people become infected. As things get worse, Soderbergh isn’t shy in exploring the selfishness of human nature as the fight for survival becomes increasingly dire. Problem with all of this is is that you’re almost watching a world in a fish bowl with little concern or care for what’s going on inside. The characters you’re watching have names, but that’s pretty much the extent of the audience’s attachment.
The media angle is also explored using a conspiracy theorist blogger played by Jude Law, posing theories on media cover-ups and exaggeration and the scientific and medical industry’s unwillingness to tell the truth. The approach to the character is initially interesting, but he soon becomes overbearing and unbelievable to the point I increasingly lost interest.
The most frustrating character, however, belongs to Marion Cotillard playing a doctor for the World Health Organization searching for the source of the virus. Her involvement takes a melodramatic and silly tangent that gets worse and worse, even when you think it may be getting better.
I was able to find a slight connection with Matt Damon’s character as he and his daughter do their best to survive while closing themselves off in their house. Damon has a delivery I simply tend to believe. His ability to tap into the heart of a character is one of the best out there today and for that reason alone I remained interested and hopeful for his character.
The best performance, though, comes from Kate Winslet as an on-the-ground young doctor working under Laurence Fishburne at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Winslet’s character is out among the infected, doing what she can to stop the spread of the disease and set up quarantines and shelters. She’s commanding in the role, and yet vulnerable. The vulnerability comes through not only in the fact she’s risking her life, but also by her performance.
Admittedly, since seeing the film I have considered how many times I touch my face each day. I don’t remember the stat Winslet throws out during the film, but on average, studies show humans touch their face 16 times an hour. When you consider how many unsanitary surfaces you touch during the day — a door handle, a coffee shop chair, a pole on the subway — and then begin to consider what would happen if a deadly communicable disease was running rampant, it’s a bit of a scary idea. Soderbergh does his best to get this idea to sink in, and it does, but the absence of an emotional connection to the film’s characters ends in a passive rather than reactive result.
I found Contagion to be interesting, but beyond the passing curiosity, the scare intended just didn’t pack as much of a punch as it could have.
