I've said it a million times but horror films have nothing on a movie based in reality. Contagion is the scariest film I've seen in years that didn't have Sarah Palin in it. Need proof? I'm sitting here at my undoubtedly germ infested keyboard wishing I could afford my own personal plastic bubble. I'm wearing disposable gloves. I want to bathe in Purell™, and swear to never touch a bowl full of bar snacks again. In Contagion, director Steven Soderbergh has delivered a hard core disaster film, the type of which someone like Roland Emmerich could never dream of matching with all his crashing buildings and tidal waves.
Contagion follows a model similar to Soderbergh's 2000 film, Traffic
, for which he won Best Director. Only instead of illegal narcotics causing the ruination of a handful of folks, and thus the entire world, it's a rapidly transmitted virus of unknown origin. All it takes is a sneeze, or in this case a lone cough in the darkness, and suddenly doorknobs and handshakes never seemed so disgusting. The virus first attacks charming businesswoman, Beth Emhoff(Gwyneth Paltrow), on a trip to Hong Kong. What starts off looking like just a common cold or flu, quickly escalates after she returns home to her waiting husband, Thomas(Matt Damon), and her kids. Within moments, she's writing on the floor with seizures, and only a few minutes after that she's dead.
No, I'm not spoiling anything. The quick exit of Paltrow wasn't exactly hidden in the TV spots and trailers. Her death is necessary to hammer home the "all bets are off" vibe coursing through this film. Soderbergh and his frequent writing partner, Scott Z. Burns, do an amazingly effective job getting across how nobody is truly safe. Nobody in this elite cast is guaranteed to see the closing credits. Especially as you sit by and get a taste of how truly unprepared the world is for an outbreak of this magnitude. The head of the Centers for Disease Control(Laurence Fishburne) struggles to defeat the pandemic from the outset, while also trying to suppress media exposure and avoid a panic. His intentions are thwarted in the most despicable of ways by a conspiracy theorist blogger(a buck toothed Jude Law) looking to cash in on the chaos. 
Soderbergh mostly handles his exquisite cast with his usual deftness, although there are so many various little stories going on that only a couple of them get a chance to shine. Damon is fantastic as the real face of the disaster, a dad watching his family fall apart due to the disease. Kate Winslet is great as a field researcher striking at the problem directly. Marion Cotillard has nothing to do, so much so that her character disappears for an hour until I forgot what she was even doing. The big breakouts come from maybe the least glamourous of Soderbergh's cast. Fishburne is outstanding as the CDC chief, who knows the possibly devastating impacts of the outbreak but confined by beaurocracy to ever reveal everything. But it's Jennifer Ehle as the CDC's enthusiastic primary researcher who really shines.This is the type of film Soderbergh does best. Even though the film takes place mostly in labs and hospital rooms, he still somehow makes it sexy and cool. Who else could pull something like that off, instilling germophobia in his audience and making them enjoy it?
