Steven Soderbergh’s smart disaster flick “Contagion” chronicles the apocalyptic rise of a mysterious disease, tracking a number of perspectives differently affected by its onslaught. Oddly enough, this film may as well have been the implied story during the end credits of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” where a virus decimates the human populace on a global scale.
The cast is unquestionably impressive. Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law play besieged characters that react to the unprecedented outbreak, each privy to a different side of the catastrophe. Not everyone survives it; some of them aren’t around for long, but the survivors’ tales offer realistic consequences, as well as insights into human behavior.
It should be frightening, but it mostly isn’t. It connects on a cerebral level; the sometimes-loosely connected tales are a welcome challenge. Your mind grasps the simultaneous upheavals but strangely (and sadly), not every story elicits sympathy or concern. The overall tragedy registers, but there’s very little empathic connection to the more personal misfortunes. The viewer’s attention is too split to really care for all the characters, but to the actors’ credit, they perform their assigned tasks admirably.
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