The Movie
Exhibiting much the same sharp-eyed, almost clinical style so memorably employed for Traffic, director Steven Soderbergh educates moviegoers on the little-known, often-misunderstood world of disease and control with his latest thriller, Contagion. Our story actually begins on Day 2 of an outbreak of a mysterious new disease that that takes hold quickly with some nasty symptoms and soon kills 20 percent or more of infected individuals. And unless it can be stopped, it will soon claim hundreds of millions of people all around the world.
With many chilling images, this compelling tale is illuminated from multiple angles. There's the ruthless blogger (Jude Law) who breaks the story but develops his own ulterior motives in short order. There's the family man (Matt Damon) who's just lost his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) but is all the more determined to protect his daughter. And there's the dedicated Center for Disease Control executive (Laurence Fishburne) and his woman in the field (Kate Winslet) who, along with a World Health Organization agent (Marion Cotillard) are working tirelessly to figure out what they're up against, how to beat it, and how to help as many people as quickly as possible.
One of the drawbacks to having this many characters though is that we never get to know any one of them quite as deeply as we might like. But it helps that we have such an engaging cast of stars, including three Academy Award-winning Best Actresses, albeit in surprisingly small roles.
Contagion is genuinely disturbing, not so much for the fast-acting fictitious virus but for the credible revelation of the speed with which an illness like this could actually spread across the globe.
Had your shots? Then you might be able to handle Joe Lozito's review of Contagion.
The Picture
Shot with the high-resolution RED One MX digital video camera, the 16:9 Contagion exhibits a deliberate, frequent harshness to the colors, and to he overall image quality, again in trademark Soderbergh fashion. That's not to say that the clarity is in any way lacking, as the picture is remarkably detailed and noise-free, but sometimes unsettling and never in a "pretty" way. Blacks are unpleasant though, stark and without nuance.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1-channel mix is often simple, utilizing only the front soundstage and centered primarily upon dialogue, but the quality is clean, even the shouting well-recorded and effortlessly reproduced. I noted some occasional discrete cues in the surrounds, most notably in the flashback casino scenes, in addition to realistic crowds and urban environments. The progress of the story is at times driven by Cliff Martinez' musical score, which is gently mixed all around to embrace the viewer.
The Extras
Two eerily similar behind-the-scenes featurettes are provided, "The Reality of Contagion" (eleven-and-a-half minutes) and "The Contagion Detectives" (six minutes). The first combines gushing cast/crew interviews with real-life expert insights so it all sounds like science, while the second... is pretty much the same thing, with maybe a bit more emphasis on the doctors and journalists.
"Contagion: How a Virus Changes the World" is a lighthearted but quite informative two-minute animated public service announcement about potential epidemics and pandemics. All of these extras are in HD.
The Blu-ray is also BD-Live-enabled, while Disc Two is a DVD of the movie (no supplements) in standard definition. Also included in the package is a unique printed code redeemable for an UltraViolet Digital Copy.
Final Thoughts
Stick with Contagion and ultimately the icky truth about Day 1 is revealed, but not before we've watched a probably-accurate depiction of how civilization, if not the entire world, would unravel in the face a major outbreak in the modern age. The picture and sound might be squeaky clean, but I still wish that this movie arrived with a bottle of Purell.
Product Details
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