LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
Is Warrior good, Hanso? You've seen it?
Steven Soderbergh has played this game before. In Traffic, his kaleidoscopic look at the drug trade, he set a standard few could ever match and walked off with an Oscar in the process. Contagion looks to do the same thing with the notion of a global epidemic: charting how it begins, the ways it spreads, the methods the authorities take to stop it, and the response of the average citizen to the chaos that ensues. It lacks the fervent intensity of Traffic – the relentlessness that made that earlier film such a masterpiece – but its intelligent script carries the same sense of verite, and the scenario it unfolds is just as plausible and unsettling.
Soderbergh takes his cue from the first third of Stephen King’s The Stand, with the notion of a deadly new virus that spreads throughout the population faster than we can contain it. The first American patient is a philandering businesswoman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who flies back from China with a little something extra in her system. It quickly spreads to her son, her lover and her driver, and from there to entire cities. We follow experts from the CDC, the woman’s hapless yet seemingly immune husband (Matt Damon), World Health Organization officials, and an ambitious news blogger (Jude Law) as the epidemic promotes panic and lawlessness the further it spreads.
The drama thus becomes a sort of potpourri – like Traffic, different threads all interweaving as the movie goes on. The best ones depend on good performances as much as their place in the complex storyline. Kate Winslet scores a coup as one of the doctors on the ground, as does Damon trying to keep what’s left of his family safe from looters, fresh infections and rampaging hormones. Law is less effective, sporting fake teeth as a skeezy hack willing to take a payoff in return for perpetuating a dodgy cure. Marion Cotillard similarly struggles in a thread that goes nowhere, as a WHO doctor searching for the source of the disease in China.
Soderbergh’s clinical approach prevents us from getting too close to any of the principles, making Contagion more of an intellectual exercise than a grab-you-by-the-short-ones thriller. On the other hand, as an intellectual exercise, it remains compulsively fascinating. Soderbergh does his homework and his fly-on-the-wall approach prevents the sprawling narrative from descending into undue dramatics. The brief pieces of genuine contrivance that arise are mainly here to keep the movie focused while still shining a light on every corner of this scenario.
Nor does Soderbergh skimp on authenticity. The details all ring true, from the CDC’s measured calculations to the way the veneer of civilization falls away as the disease works its way through civilization. The apocalyptic overtones never veer into the cartoonish, making the sight of looted grocery stores and National Guardsmen in HAZ-MAT suits all the more chilling. Though Contagion remains a speculative scenario, things wouldn’t look very different if an epidemic of this proportion ever really appeared. It mentions the swine flu outbreak more than once, as well as the influenza epidemic of 1918, reminding us of how close we are to this kind of fear.
Soderbergh is one of our most talented directors: willing to try anything, which helps him reinvent himself every film. It bites him in the ass more than once (if you ever have a chance to see his four-hour Che biopic… don’t), but it also provides a vibrancy to his work than most other movies lack. Contagion doesn’t push any boundaries and it can’t compare with Traffic in terms of quality. But you sense the director’s keen interest in this material and a desire to deliver it to us as accurately as he can. The results give us a very rare treat: something worthwhile to ponder in the barren movie wasteland of September.
I'm going to see Warrior. The good reviews had me interested but the praise from Professor Hanso has me actually looking forward to it. If it sucks I blame you son!
VTGame - Why yes I have. For some reason, they had special screening of the movie across the country last Sunday, only one show. So I checked it out and really liked it. It has some some very good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes that can probably give you more insight into the movie than my "It's awesome!" comment.
Shac - No blame will necessary as I guarantee you, it won't suck.
When Soderbergh hits it out of the park he hits it out of the park. When he doesn't he's at least good for two bases and an RBI.
Oh boy, there goes hanso promoting the man butt hugging movie again...
I will not be seeing many movies over the next few months but if I do I'll try to catch Contagion. Any movie that kills off Gwyneth should be watched repeatedly.
And you know I'm just messing with you hanso...
Though honestly I would rather stick a fork in my eye then see a movie about the sport of man hugging. Wow, do I miss the heavy weight boxing, a sport that required skill.
Hmmm, an angsty piece about two brothers who face off in a martial arts competition or a scifi thriller with Mat Damon and Jude Law in it?
Think I'm going to see Contagion.
Hobbs, I would man hug you if you were next to me. Is that gay? Yes. Btw, why do you hate Gwenyth Paltrow?
MMA is for men who have hidden homosexual tendencies but are afraid to admit and act on them and may be angry with themselves... ....according to The American Journal of Science, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Genes, Brain and Behavior and to cement this theory according to Papi Chulo too
I dig Soderberg, glad to see the flick getting decent reviews. Will try to catch this weekend. However, if you can only see one flick this weekend go see WARRIOR.