Ohh, the cough heard around the world can sometimes be as close as the guy sitting next to you while watching a movie like "Contagion", Steven Soderbergh's latest opus on the devise of humanity in the face of an aggressive pandemic. However, I would say that its distributor, Warner Bros Pictures, missed a golden marketing opportunity in scattering about various audience members to cough incessantly through the movie to add an extra layer of reality to the spectacle. I know the gimmick surely worked on me as, being a germaphobe, watching the opening images of "Contagion" unfold as i'm contorting my body away from the guy next to me who is coughing, touching his soda constantly, and manically looking for a place to wipe his hands, gave me almost as much pause as watching pretty little Gweneth Paltrow's face contort into a startling kodak image of her final destination (lol). But then a funny thing happened, when the guy stopped coughing next to me...........so did the movie's urgency or credibility.
Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Soderbergh fan and he is no stranger to weaving intricate plot details into a comprehensive and expressive thesis (see "Traffic" for reference). However, there is something slightly off about "Contagion" that plays in direct opposition to its dire subject matter. Hopscotching over multiple locals and with enough star power to light up time square, there are few filmmakers who could achieve what Soderbergh display on film here. However, the casting itself at times tends to be a distraction as A-list actors, who have long laid bit playing to waste, are playing essentially stock characters and archetypes worthy of a lifetime movie (cough....Sanaa Latham) . Of these, its is Kate Winslet as Dr. Erin Mears who truly sparkles beyond her tacked on veneer. There is a sense of urgency to her character that the others seem oblivious to. And whenever she is on screen she adds not only heart to the proceedings, but credibility and a soul. That is not to say that we don't get to see the other characters in their humane "moments", its just that they don't convey as much as she does in her brief moments on screen...the complexity of trying to react to a pandemic while also being the one employed to solve it.
we get it all here in Soderbergh's vision; scouting locations for triage, the breakdown of society, looting, xenophobia, control and flow of information. However, what bothered me most about these details was that what Soderbergh chose to show wasn't remotely as interesting as the ideas he has held up in front of you. We see that Matt Damon character is immune to the virus, but are there others, and if they are could their DNA provide clues on how to treat the virus. Post mass infection, we see that a cure has been devised, but how does society pull itself back together after a virus nearly signals the apocalypse. On that note, how do you dispose of the tens of millions who have died of the infection especially when you mention that there are no more body bags. in my opinion, a lot of the most compelling parts of "Contagion" are delivered in shorthand with a great deal of attention being paid to Jude Law's blogger character even though its doesn't necessarily provide an interesting angle to the story or provide any more perspective other than the motivations of greed. Also, similarly with 2012 and a slew of other disaster mass death movies, the deaths of hundred of thousands of people feels wholly inconsequential and for all of its cerebral banter on how long it would take to test and mass produce a cure, the way we get to the "cure" seems maddeningly simple and is played in a very "Meh" matter of fact way.
So is the idea of time as we are constantly reminded about how many days in we are or have passed while the movie seems to loose steam with every turning title card. Its as if, the more infected and the more fatalities there are on screen, the less the movie becomes concerned with these fatalities and human lives. Not that the virus discriminates in any form. We see those on the front lines affected as well as your every day lay man. However, it never really ads up to much. Especially since the movie set up an interesting parallel of the virus survival vs our own.
The script is maddening all on its own. If it weren't for the gravitas of the actor on screen and the vision of Soderbergh at play what we would ultimately have here is a glorified movie of the week ala "the first 48". Characters are introduced, play around a little, and totally disappear and/or are killed off. Some come back later in the story, but we learn absolutely nothing about these people and there motivations other than the framed moments meant to feign compassion. Cough, Cough
by the time we reach movie's conclusion and circle around back to day 1 (the movie starts off on day 2 of the virus) its as if the movie has completely undermined itself. Setting up a scenario that looks simple enough that in my mind I went, "okay, all I have to do is never take a trip to Hong Kong, eat at fancy restaurant, and shake hands with the head chef" and if I do.......at least Ill bring plenty of hand sanitizer. I mean, instead of charging a premium for shitty 3D glasses, maybe cinemas can now charge for those nifty little bottled of Purell and sale the spectacle in 4D....at least then you can leave knowing that if you managed to touch the armrest that said coughing guy next to you was wiping his hands on, then you wouldn't have to worry about a nasty soar throat later....or an all out brawl.
No comments:
Post a Comment