zaterdag 8 februari 2014

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 24: Contagion

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 106 minutes
Year: 2011
Starring: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Elliot Gould, John Hawkes

Description: The CDC races against time to develop a vaccine against an extremely lethal virus.

Review: It’s very clear what this film is about, the title says it all. Between all the big stars, the style of this film stays cold and sober constantly.
The plot is basically about an epidemic of a life-threatening virus, that kills almost everyone who comes in contact with it. It’s an unknown virus and it takes some time to find a vaccine. This results in panic, desperation and a manic search for a cure.
“Contagion” has several characters and follows some subplots. There is too much going on to give the characters any depth. Soderbergh wasn’t aiming for that. What he did well is showing us how people would react in a situation like this. The most interesting part of the story is where the leader of the CDC, doctor Cheever, and blogger Alan Krumwiede go head to head.
The movie is set up in fragments, which works. You feel the pressure and the panic. Although it was already explained to the viewer what this virus is, Soderbergh decided to put the cause of this virus in the last minute of the film. It feels like the movie is over-explaining itself, which wasn’t necessary. We aren’t dumb.
“Contagion” was a good film, but pretty average and not very memorable for me.

Rating: 3/ 5

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