|

|
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
Disaster movies, where humanity faces an unassailable enemy in the form of a
meteor, floods, virus, aliens etc. are aplenty. It would hence take a genius to
make another and yet make it feel fresh enough for it to be enjoyable and
terrifying. Steven Soderbergh, with "Contagion", is that master.
Its genius lies in its matter-of-fact approach without literally making a
statement on anything, either humanity or the possible theories behind an
epidemic as also in not using melodrama to raise empathy. In the world of twists
and counters twists, the film treads a near straight line, yet manages to give
one the shivers.
After a trip to Hongkong, Beth (Paltrow) falls sick and dies in a few days. Even
before her husband can come to believe it, their son dies similarly. Before
researchers identify the virus, hundreds of people all over the world begin to
die.
As the global health bodies jostle to figure what`s happening, an epidemic
breaks out that threatens to destroy the political, social and economic
structure of the world as mobs run riot and anarchy rules. How humanity survives
it, forms the later part of the film.
"Contagion" is the story of one virus`s journey through humans, its
exponential multiplication and final elimination. Unlike many other virus
disaster films like "28 Days Later" or "I Am Legend", it is
not a horror film.
Yet, it is much more terrifying for this one seems chillingly possible, as
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), bird flu and others have proven.
And it doesn`t take a meteor like in the underrated masterpiece "Deep
Impact" or "Armageddon"; not even aliens like in
"Independence Day"; nor even global warming as in "2012" to
threaten human life and bring the world to its knees. It takes one small,
invisible virus.
"Contagion" is a spine-chilling tale because it literally and very
simplistically shows how a conveniently connected world could actually become a
problem in such a case. And how the well oiled governmental machinery globally
could collapse under such an onslaught.
If one were to look at parallels or metaphors, they are aplenty.
Consider for example, the financial contagion of 2008-09. The virus of greed,
which first showed symptoms in America, nearly took down the world, till two
years later, the same time it takes to control the virus in the film, it was
controlled and the world limped back to normalcy.
Face it, we live in a world where there may be physical borders but which is so
well connected that viruses - be that on bodies or computers or financial
systems - can spread rapidly through the world and systematically destroy
everything.
Thus, without attempting to make a statement, "Contagion" decimates
the stupid notions of nationality and borders and paints the world as one
extended body, where problems in one part, even one human in this case, can
affect and destroy the world as we know it.
And it is to the credit of a dream, ensemble star cast who not only do bit parts
in a film they believed in, but also give their best.
One can only hope, pray, wish that the scary possibility of such a story stays
confined within cinema halls and that we actually never see it.