Movie Review: Contagion

Score: 2/5 Stars

My advice: Don't waste your time and save your money. It's not worth the 9 dollar ticket, or 18 dollars if you have a date. If you must, wait for the dollar theatre....but even then, think twice.

The truth about this movie just that it never delivers. There's never really a punch to it. This goes contrary to what the film advertises in its trailer. The trailer sets up a movie with an all-star cast in what looks like could be a thriller about what would happen if an epidemic sweeps across the world killing millions upon millions. Sounds like a good plot with plenty of potential, and the trailer made it look like maybe the movie could be well done. After all, some great actors had signed up for it. Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, to name a few.

Unfortunately, while the actors all do their jobs just fine, it's the script that is the problem. It delves into many stories all at once: the renegade blogger who is trying to expose how the pharmaceutical companies are in bed with the government at the cost of human lives, the people with the World Health Organization who are trying to counter his claims and manage a global crisis, the scientist who works to find a vaccine despite being told to shut down his operations, and the family man who loses half his family, not just to the disease but to the revelation of infidelity as well, but who himself has an immunity to it all as he watches the world around him die and as he struggles to protect his surviving loved ones.

Lots of great, potentially very intriguing story lines here. The sad part is that they never really go too deep below the surface. Not enough is there to really drag the viewer in to really care a lot about what is happening. A dedicated health services worker dies. She was a real trooper. Really, she was. But I didn't care a whole lot. Why? Because I never got to know her. That's just one example.

Furthermore, the movie really was lacking in showing the sheer HORROR of exactly what is happening in the world. It feels more like a news reel, with a few clips of footage from around the world. It never pulls you in to the world where everyone is dying around you. It never truly makes you feel the terror of what is happening, and the helplessness against it. Of course it talks about it and attempts to portray it somewhat, but I was definitely underwhelmed.

The movie ends up feeling like a long, boring documentary. I could tell that I wasn't the only person in the theatre bored. It was sort of an awkward feeling. Here we all are, staying only because we paid good cash to get some kind of a pay off for it.....and......what? Nothing. What a rip off.

I only gave this movie 2 stars for the actors and for making me think about the reality of such a situation possibly happening - which is certainly quite possible. Other than that, this movie is definitely a disappointment.