Contagion

Running Time: 106 minutes.
Media: Cinematic Release.

Contagion was movie Number Two of my seven movie marathon on 29/10/2011. By this stage, my brother-in-law, Sam, and I were in high hopes of this being another great film, and it does achieve this, but it does leave a few holes in the end - I won't say how it does this, but this just a word of warning.

The movie is based on a touch-based virus which spreads like wildfire throughout the world and the attempts to stabilize and fight the spread of it. Steven Soderbergh has a tendency to direct fairly decent films with a great storyline and featuring a star-studded cast. Contagion is no exception to this formula of Soderbergh's.

This movie kinda smacks with Outbreak-esque tendencies but then diverges with four separate storylines that start from "Day 2" of the movie, where an unfaithful Beth Emhoff played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has a little tryst with an old flame in Chicago on her way back from Hong Kong to see her family again. She later dies some time after from unknown causes. From there a number of people around the world start exhibiting similar symptoms and start dropping like flies. A mad race to discover the cure before it takes hold of everyone capable of doing so then ensues.

Like all medical thrillers of this kind, it tends to hold off until the eleventh hour before resolution of the pandemic occurs... However, it seems like all the four storylines have had to entwine in order for this movie to work. Tying these storylines together however is a little bit of a challenge, and although Soderbergh manages to do this, it leaves you a little empty. The movie comes full circle at the end of the film as it shows the series of events that lead to "Day One", and even then it leaves you feeling just a little bit empty, like there's something missing, but you just can't place it...

Still I enjoyed this film, and I'm gonna give it 4½ stars for great effort, but I'll leave it shy of the elusive 5 star rating because it leaves a few questions unanswered.