CONTAGION

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne

In Contagion, Steven Soderbergh applies his intelligent, steely touch to the medical disaster movie.

A multi-stranded ensemble piece – imagine Traffic with microbes – Contagion traces the outbreak of a global pandemic.

A decidedly peaky-looking Gwyneth Paltrow plays Patient Zero, no sooner home from the East than she’s dead on a dissecting slab.

mong the medics and bureaucrats trying to contain the situation are Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and a scene-stealing Elliott Gould.

The weakest links are Jude Law’s conspiracy-theorist blogger, whose Antipodean accent could set off allergic reactions, and the scenes of panic and looting – so cursory that you wish Soderbergh had been able to develop his themes at mini-series length.

Still Scott Z Burns’ shrewd script makes pointed parallels between biological viruses and (mis)information as transmitted online.
Jonathan Romney

Opens Oct 21 // Cert 12A // 105 mins