It felt like this celebrity-filled flick slipped through theaters faster than its virus through people, but I personally enjoyed it. Though the movie was pretty good, I was surprised to see a host of stars including Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Laurence Fishburne. This turn out may be due in part to director Steven Soderbergh's (Traffic and Ocean's Eleven/Twelve) involvement in the film or its anti-government tendencies, either way including each star enhanced the film. It was never the "Matt Damon Show," in fact the show didn't belong to anyone except for the slew of innocent victims in the path of the disease.
It showed the destruction and chaos that ensues when an incurable infection begins to spread at a record pace. Contagion didn't rely on jumping-out-of-the-shadows fear, mainly because it didn't need to — the potential reality of this disease was scary enough. Jude Law provided a stand-out performance as Alan Krumwiede, a science blogger intent on informing the public of the government's alleged lies. Law opted to sport a gaggle of crooked teeth and a harsh accent, which was a nice contrast to his typically suave mystique.
The film did a good job of offering both the government and public side to this crisis with an overwhelming message of the power behind fear. It alternated between scenes of institutional panic and urgency and that of the public's.
I related most to Matt Damon's character Mitch Emhoff, who lost his wife Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his stepson to the disease in the same day. Mitch, who was immune to the disease, spent his screen time protecting his daughter at all costs. Unlike the other, less intelligent members of the population, he spent the majority of his days indoors refusing to let her see her boyfriend and standing guard, shotgun in hand.
Lessons learned: Become vegan, always wear a face mask, don't touch anyone or anything and always carry a shotgun.
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