Steven Soderbergh's 2011 film begins with an American businesswoman (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) returning from the trip to Asia, unaware that she was infected by deadly disease. She quickly gets ill and dies, just like her son, leaving the grieving husband (played by Matt Damon) in hospital quarantine. It soon becomes apparent that the new disease is spreading throughout the world, and the team of Center for Disease Control experts, led by Dr. Cheever (played by Laurence Fishburne) works hard in order to identify the virus and discover vaccine or cure. Their efforts don't prevent millions of dead and even more chaos and destruction caused by panic. Unlike many films with similar themes, Contagion works as a "pure" disaster film, with impressive cast of stars whose characters might die any moment in the film. It also lacks macho heroics, zombies or other post-apocalyptic cliches. Instead its tone is serious and almost clinical in nature. Contagion describes the fragility of modern civilisation from the perspective of those most likely to deal with it, and with Soderbergh's cold direction being used with great effect. This script, however, is far from perfect, because some subplots and characters (like the WHO scientist played by Marion Cotillard) are underused, undeveloped or unecessary. The most interesting thing about Contagion, made during the Obama administration, is sympathetic portayal of US federal officials as heroes, which was until that time more exception than the rule in Hollywood. The closest thing to a human villain is Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law), blogger who spreads false news and conspiracy theories and who is, many ways, based what would State Department and Pentagon like the world to think about Julian Assange.
RATING: 7/10