Each week, I will look at a movie that is currently in theaters or available to stream and give some reasons why people should watch it. This isn’t necessarily a film critique, rather, an overview of what I think is enjoyable about the film, and why it’s worth seeing. This week we’ll look at Contagion, starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, and Laurence Fishburne.
Watching Contagion with the lens of having just gone through a pandemic results in a much better appreciation for the movie. Contagion came out back in 2011, and when I first saw it, I felt meh towards it. But, a decade later and with more context, I found reasons as to why this movie was well done. For starters, just about everything seemed startlingly accurate. The portrayal of panic of the citizens once everyone realized there was a deadly virus going around, the messaging from the CDC and the strife within the organization, even the focus on some of the citizens and their views, such as Jude Law’s character all felt like something we’ve seen before. The movie did a good job of showing some of the difficult decisions that must be made both at home and out in the field, and the sense of urgency to find a cure to a disease previously unknown. Considering this is several years before what would happen to the world in 2020, this got just about everything right and should be commended for its accuracy on how a pandemic scenario would play out on different levels of society. The cast is here is good, and while I don’t think there’s anything particularly difficult to act out here, everyone fit there role well. I recommend this movie because it’s not too often you have a movie show what would happen in a negative global event, and then that thing actually happen (and compared to an alien invasion or a zombie outbreak this seems preferable.) For my money, Contagion did a concerningly good job.
Contagion is available to stream on Netflix.
