Contagion

Scott Z Burns’s smart script zigzags from Hong Kong to London, Tokyo, Minnesota and beyond, examining the reaction of governments, scientists and the public from myriad perspectives, unearthing personal dramas in the midst of a devastating global catastrophe.

Only once does the film resort to what might be considered cheap disaster movie tactics, watching nervously as two surgeons peel back the scalp of the first victim to examine her brain for signs of the infection.

Otherwise, Soderbergh shows cool restraint throughout, killing off major cast members with little fanfare as the virus shows no mercy.

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from a business trip to Hong Kong with acute flu-like symptoms.

Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) dutifully nurses her and their son Clark (Griffin Kane), who is also feeling under the weather.

Following a seizure, Beth dies and within hours, Clark is dead too.

Mitch is rushed into isolation but miraculously he seems to be immune to the outbreak and is soon allowed to return home with his daughter, Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron), who has been out of town.

More cases are reported by an increasingly hysterical media and Dr Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) from the Centre For Disease Control and Prevention dispatches one of his best operatives, Dr Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), to the Emhoff house in Minneapolis to trace the pathogen.

Meanwhile, epidemiologist Dr Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) from the World Health Organisation heads for Hong Kong to see if Beth contracted the virus there.

In a secret laboratory, Dr Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) and Dr David Eisenberg (Demetri Martin) try to grow the virus, which seems to be derived from pigs and bats, in order to engineer an antivirus, with guidance from respected academic Dr Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould).

However, conspiracy theorist blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) thwarts their efforts by spreading misinformation.

Contagion opens on the second day of the outbreak and charts the virus to the point when scientists make a vital breakthrough.

Tension is palpable from the opening frames and Cliff Martinez’ score quickens the pulse.

Damon delivers another terrific performance as a family man unable to stop his loved ones dying in his arms, who will do literally anything to protect his daughter from the same grim fate.

The emotional pay-off to that particular relationship is wonderful.

Winslet and Ehle are equally impressive and Law sports a snaggletooth and an Australian accent as the agent provocateur, who cynically believes the lethal strain could end the recession for pharmaceutical companies.

Close-ups of the infected coughing and spluttering, unknowingly passing on the virus by touching surfaces, makes for uncomfortable viewing.

A-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down.

****

Contagion director Steven Soderbergh and lead actor Matt Damon explain why a deadly virus is on its way, and they’re not just talking about their latest film Just in time for flu season, Hollywood has recruited a crack team of its finest actors to whip up fear of a global pandemic. Contagion, the latest collaboration between Matt Damon, below left, and Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh, below right, is a thriller exploring what happens when a deadly virus spreads. “In the back of our minds we thought this movie could do for elevator buttons what Jaws did for the beach,” says Soderbergh, who lined up Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cottilard, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle as his ensemble cast. The action begins when Beth (Paltrow) returns home to the States from a business trip to Hong Kong. What she first believes to be jet-lag turns into a fever that kills her in just a few days, leaving her grieving husband (Damon) to look after their daughter. Damon says: “Steven was really bullish about the script. He said: ‘It’s fantastic and I’m sending it over for you to take a look’. He sent it over with this note that said ‘Read this and then wash your hands’.” As a father of three daughters, the 41-year-old actor found it only too easy to relate to the role of a protective father. “Even though they’re going through this extraordinary experience, they’re still dealing with typical issues of parents and teenagers,” he says. Soderbergh and writer Scott Z Burns began chatting about Contagion while working on another Damon film, The Informant. “We talked about how people seem to get sick when they travel, so it began as an exploration of the vulnerability of human beings in public places,” explains Burns. Then six months into their research came the H1N1 virus (swine flu) outbreak. “There’s a sort of triangle of elements when you’re talking about a virus,” says Soderbergh. “The first is the mode of transmission, the second is the incubation period and the third is the mortality rate. “And when we were doing the research it was really alarming to find out how subtle a shift in any of those three elements could result in something that would immediately overwhelm any infrastructure you had set up. “At the beginning of H1N1, before they knew what each of those elements were, there was a lot of concern this could be something more like what you see in Contagion.” From talking to the experts, Soderbergh is convinced there will be another pandemic of similar proportions to the Spanish Flu of 1918, which wiped out 50 million people. “They are confident, they’re sure. It’s cyclical, every once in a while, a really bad one turns up. So they made me feel worse, but what made me feel better was that the people we talked to were very, very good at their jobs.” Damon is aware the film’s had an impact on his family, but has tried to keep it in perspective. “We live in New York City, so when the kids come back from the park, we definitely do a lot of hand washing. But besides that, I do think, on a day-to-day level, germs are a good thing and I want my kids to build up an immunity.”