Too soon?
Steven Soderbergh makes consistently good films and "Contagion" is a solid example. Set up as a thriller we're offered a fast moving and realistic portrayal of a deadly global pandemic. Released in 2011, it accurately includes many of the challenges the world faced during the COVID-19 pandemic a decade later, both on a personal and a logistical level.
The film explores the chaos, fear, and desperation that ensues as governments, scientists, and ordinary citizens struggle to contain the outbreak. The ensemble cast, featuring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Lawrence Fishburne and Jude Law deliver engaging performances, portraying various deferring roles in the unfolding crisis.
This is not a great character drama as the focus of the tale is the rapid development of a severe pandemic. It has the "just the facts" feel of a documentary that includes dramatizations. Perhaps the film's primary strength in fact, is its accuracy. Soderbergh consulted with epidemiologists and other experts to ensure that the portrayal of the virus and its spread was realistic. This attention to detail make the film pretty close to home. "Contagion" has a lot of ground to cover, and it does, including personal trauma, the science, media and misinformation, government reaction and even issues of international relations.
"Contagion" is also interesting for a few things it leaves out. We all unfortunately know so much more about this sort of thing now than we did in 2011.
More reviews here on letterboxd:
No comments:
Post a Comment