Contagion

The scariest film of the year.

I wish this movie was not as scary as it is. This film isn’t scary in the attack you while you’re sleeping kind of way. At least with that kind of scary, there is a %99.9 repeating chance that it will never happen. Nope. This film is the this can absolutely happen as soon as tomorrow and that’s just a part of the world we live in right now kind of scary.

I used to be a germaphobe and I’m fairly certain this film will go a long way in scaring people into taking better care of themeselves. The thing that I admire most about this master stroke is that it doesn’t cheat. The director doesn’t find a way to manipulate our feelings, and he doesn’t use tricks to push our emotions in a certain direction. No, instead what Soderbergh does here is far braver and most filmmakers wouldn’t be able to pull it off. He sits on and even relies on the strength of the storyline to carry the film, and in doing so, ALL characters in the film, no matter what pay grade the actor portraying him or her is in, are succeptable to death by disease from as early as 10 minutes into the film, right to the very last frame.

Being a household name or megastar will NOT save you in this film, and that is very chilling.

In fact, the thing that stuck out most was how much of this film is actually spoken dialogue. I would actually say at the most %25 of this film is dialogue, and that’s probably being generous. It’s a ballsy move on the part of the writer and the director, but he often sits on a scene and follows the touch of hands, or a doorknob, or a glass, through an entire cycle and string of people with nothing but the image you are seeing, and the rapid and eerie score thumping beneath it.

It is more than effective as you don’t often need words in this story to watch the virus rip through our population, not one by one, but by 100′s, then thousands’ then hundred thousands, then millions, and it’s all far too plausible.

And as if knowing people would question the science without backing it up with solid reality, Soderbergh offers up all the technical jargon and reality one would need to realize that this is far from science fiction, and much much closer to home.

Is this a film I will buy on Blu Ray? Without question. Is it a film I can watch often, probably not. But when I’m in the mood for a reality check on where we could easily be headed if we don’t take better care of ourselves…I just found it.