'Contagion' is a well-acted, brilliantly put-together terrifying, and realistic feeling film, which grips you from start to finish. (Warner Bros Pictures/aceshowbiz.com)
What’s the best kind of movie? That answer certainly depends on the mood, and the person. But if you think about it, the characters you empathize with (or hate) the most, the plots that capture you so completely, and the films that demand your 110 percent attention from start to finish all share a common characteristic: they’re realistic. They feel like it’s you or someone you know, or it’s something that could very well happen to you, if it hasn’t already. Contagion is a gigantic terror, told at an incredible pace. It’s flawless, brilliantly acted, directed, edited and has a tremendous score to boot. But the kicker is that that feeling of terror, in this world we live in, feels far, far too real and genuinely scary. Now that, is the best kind of movie.
One of the things I loved about this movie was the star-studded cast that felt like a cast of unknowns. When you look at all the A-list or almost top-notch names attached to this project – Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Elliott Gould, John Hawkes, etc – it feels like it would be too much, like acting overkill. We’ve seen that overkill happen far too often in romance comedies and other flicks in the past few years, as studios pack as many huge names into one title and hope for the best (and usually fail to some extent). Every actor in this movie however, felt and looked like the character they were playing. You didn’t see a Laurence Fishburn, you saw a head of the CDC. It was the same for each big name – they did so well, that you hardly noticed the names that were in it.
Contagion has almost no action, no explosions, and no crazy sci-fi effects. And yet, it held me attention the entire time – I was wide-eyed and on the edge of my seat. It’s nerve-racking, thought-provoking, and hits close to home. The job Steven Soderbergh did was a great one, and the sequence and editing of the whole thing was just awesome. Credit should also be given to the score of the film, as it did its job raising your blood level and keeping the intensity flowing.
It’s been a year of sort of underwhelming movies and I’m sincerely hoping all the Oscar hopes for 2012 that come out this fall and winter will turn that trend around. Contagion wasn’t just a breath of fresh air in some stale months of releases, but rather a fantastic movie on all fronts that would look great in any year. When you have such a realistic feel to something that’s acted and made with such excellence, it’s usually a home run. This, albeit scary, was a huge home run.
CONTAGION: 
(out of 4)
Filed under: Movie review Tagged: | CDC, contagion, disease, elliott gould, gwyneth paltrow, john hawkes, kate winslet, laurence fishburn, marion cotillard, matt damon, steven soderbergh
