Contagion

Contagion is high-quality filmmaking craftsmanship in the typical Steven Soderbergh fashion, with the intelligent idea of a global catastrophe and how to deal with it, topped off with attractive characters. Rather than “ordinary people”, the film focuses on characters who are in a position to deal with this problem directly and who, through their vulnerability, are also shown as ordinary human beings. The “chemical” atmosphere is emphasized by progressive electronic music without a single emotion. There could be more powerful moments and the best parts should not have happened at the beginning. The explanatory ending is sloppy. Overall, Contagion is a decent alternative to disaster movies as we know them from Emmerich and such :-) (10/13/2011)

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)

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)

A sterile clinical procedure that goes against the greatest genre conventions and its brilliantly organized yet pedantic narrative proves that Soderbergh is equal to Fincher in this regard. Unfortunately, there are a few pointless scenes and schemes, but with some passages of resolution and distrust, Contagion is close to its maximum. It shows better than any other disaster film that fear is the worst contagion. (10/13/2011)

Watching this with flu is only for the hard-nosed. The main protagonist is the contagion itself, that’s what it’s all about. An entirely new kind of movie, an emotionally sterile (and all the more impressive because of it) documentary about future things, which creates, through it’s infectious atmosphere, the insistent feeling of “so this is how it’s going to be, this is what’s gonna happen..." Of course, when it breaks out, it will be without Martinez’s perfect soundtrack. Which will be a crying shame. (01/02/2013)

For a thriller, there is not enough escalation, for a drama, there is not enough room for characters, and for a pseudo-documentary, there is too much casual presentation of empty "facts". The half-heartedness that protrudes from every other scene is sometimes unbearable, making Soderbergh a regular unlucky one. As a pure popcorn movie filled with tension, Nákaza could have scored much more forcefully, but this way, the creative intention completely missed its mark. (01/01/2012)

Steven Soderbergh’s variation on Hollywood disaster films is conceived as the exact antithesis of all of the attributes of the classic form of this genre established by A-level studio spectacles in the 1950s and definitively codified in the 1970s. At the same time, however, the aim of the film is not to subvert the genre, but rather to come up with a form of the genre for the era of extensive availability of information, so that it can again function effectively and arouse horror and tension in the audience, as compared to Emmerich-style popcorn tripe. The necessary foundation for this is provided by Scott Z. Burns’s masterful, intelligently constructed and information-packed screenplay, which is based on scientific knowledge and experience from the epidemics of that time (and therefore greatly corresponds to the real pandemic of 2020, unlike the naïve, fantastical scenario of, for example, Outbreak). (05/16/2020)

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)

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)

People will always wonder why I'm terrified of public transport, that I don't touch any of the handrails and every coughing person scares me, and that I wash my hands more thoroughly than a doctor before entering the operating room. All credit to you, Steven Soderbergh, you did it. A virus lurks around every corner, a simple handshake or use of a credit card becomes a mortal danger, tens, hundreds, thousands and hundreds of thousands of people die... And I'm not bored by any of it. Contagion is actually a classic disaster film, of which there used to be many. Just like When Time Ran Out, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm and others, this film is full of familiar faces who (understandably) attract the audience but also do a disservice to the script. Thanks to their performances, we are in fact interested in those characters who would otherwise be completely ordinary, and it doesn't matter that none of them is the main character. The plot, which unfolds according to the expected pattern (contagion-dying-antibodies-question mark), looks mundane, but also feels pleasantly dramatic and somehow heavy thanks to the cold and unsettling direction, cinematography and music. It's a great pity that Contagion isn't at least half an hour longer. The sophistication of the story and the characters would certainly have benefited from it, and the film would perhaps have gotten rid of the somewhat rushed ending. Otherwise, there is nothing to complain about. (02/18/2012)

Perhaps no one could narrate the course of a global catastrophe as consistently and dynamically as Soderbergh. Contagion is not about disease, it’s first and foremost about people; about their reactions and practices that comprehensively reflect real social conditions and flaws. We have an ordinary father trying to survive with his hysterical daughter, a deceitful manipulator who wants to profit from everything, a good-natured kidnapper who tries to help his underprivileged peers through blackmail, a drug developer, a field worker and an anonymous crowd that logically panics in a crisis and makes things difficult for the characters. The script is psychologically pared down to basic and understandable family relationships and jumps between many characters, but their lines are always informatively and cumulatively causally connected, so that the film presents a truly complex and intelligent story. The direction remains deliberately grounded and unspectacular, first emphasising the temporal cycle of the contagion, then verbally presenting a likely development, and finally setting up again a dynamic game with time, where the characters literally wait for deliverance (and don't always get it). Soderbergh once again cuts between the lines brilliantly and the narrative stutters slightly only in the last act, when he starts to repeat some motifs a bit; I didn't like the fact that the almost documentary-like grip and unemotional message has to give way to a classic conclusion. The acting is, of course, precise and, on the whole, properly urgent – that's how it would certainly happen. God save us! 80% (08/26/2018)

Contagion, as a study of a particular crisis situation, does not even attempt to educate, advise, and inform, but describes as many cogs as possible in the unstoppable mechanism of the spread of an epidemic. These are not subjectivized (there is not a single scene in the film, perhaps not even a single shot, that does not concern the contagion), they act according to pre-set patterns of behavior in a given situation, and for the viewer this is saved by the cast (the hahaha on the viewer with Gwyneth further underlined by the autopsy scene). But I see the film's perfection in its adult take on the situation, where for every problem there is a point of view that is countered and counter-argued again. And it's that absence of the characters' subjective point of view that prevents the creation of a universal truth, and we don't know anything at the end of the film that we wouldn't have found out on the internet if such a situation had actually arisen. A bunch of conspiracy theories that refute each other. Let everyone make up their own mind. (04/15/2013)

The realism of this film, which is classified as science fiction, is only understood when it starts happening in the real world. It's chilling how much the filmmakers were able to anticipate all aspects, including the basic systemic steps of a possible pandemic. Let's hope we can do better than the movie... (03/18/2020)

In the movie "Contagion", at times I felt like I wasn't watching a film, but a real recording of events. The way Steven Soderbergh portrays it is incredibly realistic and raw. The outbreak is happening, what will happen next? How will the authorities proceed? How will ordinary people proceed? The film raises countless questions, with one of the first being: Who has the first right to the vaccine? Are politicians the ones? But why? Can they save lives? Are they really the ones who would help society rebuild itself when such a widespread epidemic ends? And how far do the tentacles of multinational corporations reach? Are pharmaceutical companies truly the ones who decide our existence or non-existence? Does it solely depend on them how quickly, if at all, the vaccine will be distributed? Isn't it ridiculous to wait for certification while people are dying around us? Are we really such hypocrites, or is the film just trying to make us believe that? And what are we willing to do for fame? Are we willing to let people die? Consider what could truly happen if something like this broke out. Who will be in the first place for you and who are you willing to sacrifice. "Contagion" shows how "close" people are to each other and it shows it with unprecedented force, refusing compromises, even though some hope for a better humanity is ultimately received. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/07/kacatko-woodcock-nakaza-laska-dalsi.html (02/22/2013)

An extremely disturbing and highly suggestive vision of a global epidemic. It's both astonishing and fascinating how Soderbergh, even with all the ace actors, still maintains his cool distance, is once again very impersonal, and allows most of his stars only really minimal space. He is rewarded for this with "small" acting performances par excellence, which together with Martinez's brilliant score, sculpt an extremely intelligent film that, though it won't appeal to a wider audience, very emphatically confirms Soderbergh's quality and, above all, that he simply can and does do things his own way. There are very few filmmakers like that nowadays, so we should deeply appreciate them. (12/20/2013)