Contagion - Epidemia strachu

A sterile clinical procedure that goes against the greatest genre conventions and its brilliantly organized yet pedantic narrative proves that Soderbergh is equal to Fincher in this regard. Unfortunately, there are a few pointless scenes and schemes, but with some passages of resolution and distrust, Contagion is close to its maximum. It shows better than any other disaster film that fear is the worst contagion. (13.10.2011)

Excellent minimalist music composed by the unknown Cliff Martinez perfectly underscores the atmosphere of this currently incredibly frightening subject. It was nice, though, how many famous actors wanted to show us how quickly a malignant flu virus can spread. After some scenes, I even had a pretty disgusting feeling. The final scene, for example, along with the music, made such an impression on me as I haven't felt in a movie for a long time. Nevertheless, I was expecting anything from the movie. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who recently made me crazy angry with Che Guevara. However, this film cannot be boring. I was in suspense practically the whole time, mainly because I was looking at reality. Every scene was today's reality, which is happening, happened, or could happen. That makes it even more frightening. Matt Damon, Marion Cotillar, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishbourne showed me that reality incredibly frighteningly, and I had to think about it for a long time after it ended. Maybe next time I'll even give it five stars. (13.02.2012)

Soderbergh doesn’t give a shit about the audience. Zero emotions, little tension, full of stars but without any of them shining too much on screen. Contagion is simply an unbiased and detached look at a global pandemic, and it’s actually that austerity and inhumanity what brings to the surface the horror and hopelessness of the situation. It probably only needed to dig a bit deeper into the issue, the last half hour felt too short. 7/10 (16.12.2011)

Contagion is high-quality filmmaking craftsmanship in the typical Steven Soderbergh fashion, with the intelligent idea of a global catastrophe and how to deal with it, topped off with attractive characters. Rather than “ordinary people”, the film focuses on characters who are in a position to deal with this problem directly and who, through their vulnerability, are also shown as ordinary human beings. The “chemical” atmosphere is emphasized by progressive electronic music without a single emotion. There could be more powerful moments and the best parts should not have happened at the beginning. The explanatory ending is sloppy. Overall, Contagion is a decent alternative to disaster movies as we know them from Emmerich and such :-) (13.10.2011)

One might have expected the film to go against traditional audience expectations, yet Soderbergh manages to surprise us mainly through the optics he applies to the sloppy plot. He makes do with a documentary-like tone instead of spectacular crowd scenes and quite sovereignly lets the famous Hollywood names have minimal parts, for which they reward him with great performances. This is minimalism that digs deep under the skin. PS: This is the second film this year that was largely "made" by Cliff Martinez. (20.10.2011)