DIRECTED by the masterful Steven Soderbergh, Contagion is a stylish thriller, which imagines the panic when a deadly new virus threatens to become a global epidemic.
Scott Z Burns's smart script zigzags from Hong Kong to London, Tokyo, Minnesota and beyond, examining the reaction of governments, scientists and the public from myriad perspectives, unearthing personal dramas in the midst of devastating global catastrophe.
Only once does the film resort to what might be considered cheap disaster movie tactics, watching nervously as two surgeons peel back the scalp of the first victim to examine her brain for signs of the infection.
Otherwise, Soderbergh shows cool restraint throughout, killing off major cast with little fanfare as the virus shows no mercy.
Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from a business trip in Hong Kong with acute flu-like symptoms. It’s not long before she and her son are dead.
More cases are reported by an increasingly hysterical media and Dr Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) from the Centre For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dispatches one of his best operatives, Dr Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), to the Emhoff house in Minneapolis to trace the pathogen.
In a secret laboratory, Dr Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) and Dr David Eisenberg (Demetri Martin) try to engineer an antivirus.
However, conspiracy theorist blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) thwarts their efforts by spreading misinformation.
Contagion opens on the second day of the outbreak and charts the virus to the point when scientists make a vital breakthrough.
Close-ups of the infected coughing and spluttering, unknowingly passing on the virus by touching surfaces, makes for uncomfortable viewing.
STAR RATING: ***
