Matt’s Review: ‘Contagion’ is Far From Infectious

GRADE: C+

While I already know I am in the minority in terms of my stand point on this film, I don’t care. I did not think it was a thriller or horror flick laced with tension and suspense like some critics are labeling the Steven Soderbergh product. Contagion is a film that documents a epidemic that kills millions like a in-depth-behind-the-scenes news cast, not a movie. After the jump you can check out the video I cooked up as a review, and also my thoughts with spoilers for those who have seen Contagion.

Contagion never grabbed my attention, captivated my senses, or ever made me want to see it again. With all the positive buzz (certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), I can’t say that you shouldn’t give it a chance because I didn’t love it. It is a well polished product with a couple of good moments and laughs scattered throughout. But in the end, I guess I was just looking for something different. Something a little more deep and not just a summary of an infectious outbreak. Watch the video for my full review.

Seen Contagion? I’ll dive into some more of the things that bothered me about the flick. Let’s talk about it.

SPOILERS               

Living in Minnesota, I thought it was pretty cool to see our state in the foreground for a lot of the film. The screenplay was written by a Minnesota native, so why not? Unfortunately, none of the film was shot in Minnesota. Illinois was employed to look like the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

I don’t believe it was fully explained why Matt Damon’s character didn’t get infected, or the movie didn’t explain it very well. I remember hearing only one in the four infected dies, but nothing about why Damon was immune to direct contact with the disease’s host.

It was odd watching Marion Cotillard go from a business-oriented, very driven disease-ologist, to a hostage, to a village teacher accepting her captivity — classic Stockholm Syndrone — it seemed like her character had no consistency, or real purpose for that matter. Think. She solved the issue finding the origin of the disease, and then was taken hostage. So we followed her around as she solved this matter only to have her efforts go to nothing because her work was taken with her into the small Asian village never to be given to her superiors. I found that annoying.

Cotillard and Kate Winslet essentially played the same character, and neither was very interesting to watch. And what was with Cotillard running in the airport after finding out her captors were given placebos in exchange for her release? Where is she going? To save the village? Do we get an answer? Of course not.

How fast and undramatic was Kate Winslet killed? Wow. One second she is reaching her hand out, the next cut we are starring at a blurred face in a see-through body bag. Initially, I wasn’t even positive it was Winslet’s dead character in there.

I’ve heard plenty of people say this take was fresh because Contagion didn’t fall into a traditional narrative style, or one that tells of an event through a character’s eyes. But characters like Cotillard were still involved in the story after her work discovering more about the disease was over. She no longer had any bearing on the overriding tale, yet she was still featured. Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns attempted to give her some depth — but definitely failed — by showing how she had changed from a determined researcher to a laid back school teaching captive. Another example of trying to show a moment of emotion was when Fishburne gave up his vaccine to the kid. Sometimes it was a cut and dry telling of events, others Contagion tried to find a nerve. So this really wasn’t supposed to be just a play-by-play of an epidemic was it?

The same can be said for Damon’s character reflecting on the death of his wife at the end of the film. After Contagion ignored the human aspect for almost the entire film, it was out of place to see Damon break down over the death of his wife. And trying to use this moment to make us feel something was ridiculous. We don’t care about Paltrow, at all — she was a cheating whore. All I felt was pity knowing that Damon’s character was shedding tears for a woman that spent a five hour layover having sex with a former boyfriend in a hotel room. I’m real broken up that tramp is dead.

I saw Contagion with my wife, and after she made a fine point. A great story would not be great if you took one of the characters out — that is how important each is to the whole. One could argue Contagion would basically be the same without many of these characters — Winslet, Cotillard, Damon, Paltrow, Jude Law. Sure the movie would be different, but would the story really suffer? The only two uber important characters were Laurence Fishburne and the vaccine founder played wonderfully by Jennifer Ehle.

Jude Law’s character was also disappointing to me. The whole film could have been built around his eccentric and outspoken character, but again, his role took a backseat to the whole. The film went out of its way to show Jude’s character getting arrested and then released — but again, with such disregard for an ending, the movie left his conclusion up in the air.

Weird seeing Demetri Martin in a serious role wasn’t it?

What Did You Think Of Contagion?