Contagion

CONTAGION (12)

D: Steven Soderbergh

Warner Bros./Participant Media/Imagenation Abu Dhabi/Double Feature (Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher & Gregory Jacobs)

USA 🇺🇸 2011

102 mins

Thriller/Drama

W: Scott Z. Burns

DP: Peter Andrews (Steven Soderbergh)

Ed: Stephen Mirrione

Mus: Cliff Martinez

PD: Howard Cummings

Cos: Louise Frogley

Marion Cotillard (Dr. Leonora Orantes), Matt Damon (Mitch Emhoff), Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Ellis Cheever), Jude Law (Alan Krumwiede), Gwyneth Paltrow (Beth Emhoff), Kate Winslet (Dr. Erin Mears), Jennifer Ehle (Dr. Ellie Hextall), Elliott Gould (Dr. Ian Sussman)

*SPOILER WARNING*

In the hands of another director, this might have been a big blockbuster last summer, but Steven Soderbergh's low-key direction made it slip under the radar somewhat. Nevertheless, it's an intelligent, realistic and well-written thriller about a increasingly threatening worldwide pandemic and its repercussions amongst a vignette of characters on both sides of the divide between members of the government and members of the public, with doctors and conspiracy theorists alike trying to figure out the key to survival.

Everything could have been avoided if Gwyneth Paltrow kept it in her whore pants... it's actually quite believable that she would be responsible for the breakdown of western civilisation.

Infectiously good.

8/10