{"id":4552,"date":"2012-04-02T15:04:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T19:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4552"},"modified":"2012-04-04T01:12:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T05:12:38","slug":"br-contagion-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4552","title":{"rendered":"BR: Contagion (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>C<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Warner Home Video \/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: January 3, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Virus \/ Horror \/ Thriller<\/p>\n

Synopsis: A team of epedimiologists attempt to stop the global spread of a new, lethal virus.<\/p>\n

Special Features: 3 Featurettes: “The Reality of Contagion” (11:25) + “The Contagion Detectives” (4:59) + “Contagion: How a Virus Changes the World” (2:01)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Like the post-apocalyptic thriller, the virus thriller is a genre that often fails to deliver the goods in the second act because the set-up and infiltration of malaise is more dramatically successful than the resolution. Put another way: if humanity is teetering on a precipice of unmitigated doom, few screenwriters manage to take all their story strands and characters and converge the lot into a finale that\u2019s rewarding \u2013 either as biting, nihilistic drama, or a victory that isn\u2019t reached by terribly melodramatic, clich\u00e9d means.<\/p>\n

Contagion<\/strong> tends to fall into the noble effort category, where the opening montage \u2013 tight, succinct, kinetic, and as glossy as a digital magazine spread \u2013 blows through the methods in which disparate characters are infected and spread a deadly contagion.<\/p>\n

Director Steven Soderbergh\u2019s decision to focus on the epidemiologists \u2013 the bug hunters \u2013 presents a different side to a plague\u2019s onslaught, and for a while it works, covering the capture, problem solving, cynical discourse between colleagues, the disease cowboy mentality among the rebel contingent (Elliott Gould), and the first clues in stopping the bug which yield some measure of success and hope.<\/p>\n

Soderbergh sticks with an almost docu-drama, clinical tone reminiscent of Robert Wise\u2019s The Andromeda Strain<\/strong> (1971), casting away any personal storylines unless they involve grief or survivalist situations, as happens when a father (Matt Damon) looks after his daughter after the post-epidemic neighborhood\u2019s been raided by thugs and robbers. He\u2019s also married to America\u2019s patient zero (Gwyneth Paltrow), an exec who travelled to Hong Kong for a development project and transferred the bug to various strangers, including her son.<\/p>\n

From the scientific end, there\u2019s a field epidemiologist (Kate Winslet) who becomes infected when the bug goes airborne, and in the film\u2019s most problematic storyline, an epidemiologist in mainline China (Marion Cotillard) is snatched by local villagers and held for ransom in the hopes they can get a batch of drugs to halt the ongoing decimation of their small, insular populace. Cotillard\u2019s character becomes increasingly useless near the end, and her storyline ultimately distracts from the greater drama in which all major American cities have become militarized ghost towns, and citizens are in self-preservation mode.<\/p>\n

Jude Law plays a conspiracy blogger who spreads paranoia online and in person, cultivating fear through his own theories of government cover-ups, ineptitude, and the alleged withholding of an affordable holistic medicine he claims is keeping him healthy, while Laurence Fishburne is the head epidemiologist who tries to keep his department calm as his own personal affiliations are affected by an increasing wave of paranoia.<\/p>\n

Contagion<\/strong> has several strengths \u2013 a great cast, some healthy cynicism, a sleek visual look, and Cliff Martinez\u2019 superb score \u2013 but the drama inevitably runs out of steam, until the finale, where Soderbergh\u2019s knack for dynamic editing replays the events that triggered a mass pandemic. The film is ultimately a clinical cautionary tale that updates details of a spread to current standards, namely the ease and immediacy of infection via global travel and simple physical gestures. It\u2019s a major dramatic step up from Wolfgang Petersen\u2019s overblown Outbreak<\/strong> (1995), but the latter has a special trash factor which makes that film, dumbness and all, more pleasurable.<\/p>\n

Warner Home Video\u2019s Blu-ray includes a series of making-of featurettes, outlining the film\u2019s integration of scientific fact, research, and the actors\u2019 preparation for their roles, and there\u2019s an amusing retro-ephemeral video designed to edify audiences on How Bugs Spread. Pity there\u2019s no further info from director Soderbergh or screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum<\/strong>), but it\u2019s still a decent package for fans of the killer virus film.<\/p>\n

Note: an interview <\/a>with composer Cliff Martinez is also available.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Official Website<\/a> — Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Soundtrack review<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0C<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ C . Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Good Label: Warner Home Video \/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: January 3, 2012 Genre: Virus \/ Horror \/ Thriller Synopsis: A team of epedimiologists attempt to stop the global spread of a new, lethal virus. Special Features: 3 Featurettes: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[301,300,1170],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1bq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4563,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4552\/revisions\/4563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}