Contagion

Excellent minimalist music composed by the unknown Cliff Martinez perfectly underscores the atmosphere of this currently incredibly frightening subject. It was nice, though, how many famous actors wanted to show us how quickly a malignant flu virus can spread. After some scenes, I even had a pretty disgusting feeling. The final scene, for example, along with the music, made such an impression on me as I haven't felt in a movie for a long time. Nevertheless, I was expecting anything from the movie. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who recently made me crazy angry with Che Guevara. However, this film cannot be boring. I was in suspense practically the whole time, mainly because I was looking at reality. Every scene was today's reality, which is happening, happened, or could happen. That makes it even more frightening. Matt Damon, Marion Cotillar, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishbourne showed me that reality incredibly frighteningly, and I had to think about it for a long time after it ended. Maybe next time I'll even give it five stars. (02/13/2012)

Oh, shit! No more shaking hands with strangers... To the point, perfect craftsmanship. It documents the course of the infection in rather a minimalist manner and the life stories of people just happen by the by, and a chain reaction occurs that leads to others being infected. Surefire sterility is augmented by the music too. The literally disgusting Jude Law enjoys his role and Matt Damon is pleasantly civilian (there are no small roles). I was a little disappointed by the sloppy ending (even though it’s probably nearer reality), Contagion had greater potential. (12/17/2011)

Soderbergh doesn’t give a shit about the audience. Zero emotions, little tension, full of stars but without any of them shining too much on screen. Contagion is simply an unbiased and detached look at a global pandemic, and it’s actually that austerity and inhumanity what brings to the surface the horror and hopelessness of the situation. It probably only needed to dig a bit deeper into the issue, the last half hour felt too short. 7/10 (12/16/2011)

Typical Soderbergh, a cold, atmospheric (music, camera filters), surgically precise film. Contagion basically imposes nothing on us, it just shows the possible origin of an infection (banality) and its consequences in the context of human infection (captivating). This is followed, of course, by other things like hysteria, looting, religious problems, ethnicity, basic needs, etc. Perhaps a slight advantage for the director is the fact that he’s working with a topic so interesting in itself that even if the film wasn’t that good, its potential to captivate would still sweep away the shortcomings. Essentially, a film that is impossible to tear away from. (01/01/2012)

One might have expected the film to go against traditional audience expectations, yet Soderbergh manages to surprise us mainly through the optics he applies to the sloppy plot. He makes do with a documentary-like tone instead of spectacular crowd scenes and quite sovereignly lets the famous Hollywood names have minimal parts, for which they reward him with great performances. This is minimalism that digs deep under the skin. PS: This is the second film this year that was largely "made" by Cliff Martinez. (10/20/2011)