Film Review: Contagion

Hollywood has been through just about every permeation of potential causes for man's demise. From asteroids to nuclear war, killer bees to volcanoes, polar shifts to alien invasions, now it would seem that viruses are flavour of the week. Even the current pop-culture fascination with zombies invariably begins with some nasty little germ mutation. And what with recent scares over H1N1, bird flu and SARS serving to whip up a panicked frenzy, it seems fitting then that a film posit 'what if the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat?'. What if the result was some sort of pig-bat virus, transmitted through touch and able to claim your life in a matter of days? Contagion attempts to provide the answer.

When an unknown deadly virus begins knocking off seemingly random people around the globe, authorities race against time to track the source of the contagion and find a cure. Meanwhile a man (Damon) must deal with the sudden deaths of his wife (Paltrow) and son-in-law as society breaks down and an internet conspiracy theorist (Law) blogs myths of a cure which only serves to exacerbate the panic.

This is your typical 'what if' scenario similar in vain to 1980s disaster movie The Day After and global warming/cooling/whatever doomsday effort, The Day After Tomorrow. Like those, Contagion's grounding in reality can be a rather frightening prospect. An unseen killer, easily transmitted, accentuated by director Steven Soderbergh's lingering shots of touched doorknobs and surfaces for a few seconds longer than necessary. We are introduced to cities with their population totals flashed at the bottom of our screen while bodies are piled into massgraves and the death toll rises. And yet, Contagion never gives the impression that this disease is all that deadly. While the film's globe-trotting exploits are supposed to give you a sense of scale and magnitude, we aren't really given any stats as to how many people the virus has claimed. There is a snippet which mentions that, after a year, 2.5million have died in the US, but this represents only 1% of the US population. If we were to scale this out and assume that figures were similar in the rest of the world then it doesn't seem as unbearable as the film suggests. That may sound callous but if you take one of the most deadly natural disasters in human history, the Spanish flu which killed some 10% of the world's population back in 1918, this virus seems relatively small fish in comparison.

Indeed, fears can be further allayed when I read that the virus in Contagion isn't exactly scientifically accurate either. While the disease in the film is highly lethal, infects large amounts of people and has a very short incubation period, the reality is somewhat further removed from such a scenario. In reality an infectious disease must have a relatively long incubation period and less lethality than the film propositions in order for the virus to continue to spread. Consequently tracking the disease, which is a central plot point in Contagion, is much more difficult than the film suggests. As such many facts had to be bent in order for the story to work, and so Contagion's premise perhaps not as frightening as it first suggests.

More frightening though is the societal effects of the virus. As authorities fail to contain the outbreak and food riots ensue, people begin looking to alternative sources for guidance. Cue Jude Law's Alan Krumwiede, a conspiracist blogger claiming the government are in on it all and that the only cure is a homeopathic medicine called 'Forsythia'. Inevitably panic spreads in a fashion which seems more contagious than the virus itself as people loot pharmacies in search of this miraculous placebo. As many of us get our information from the internet these days we often forget that not all of it is vetted and corroborated. The internet is essentially a double-edged sword, both doing wonders for the proliferation of information yet burdened with an equal capacity to transmit dangerous myths and rumour. With regards to Krumwiede he quite evidently has a screw loose but what's more interesting is how the film paints him as the 'bad guy', embodying everything 'unAmerican' from dodgy accent to bad teeth. And yet Krumwiede raises some interesting points about pharmaceutical companies creating crises in order to profit as well as the unforeseen consequences of vaccines such as autism or the swine flu shot which actually killed people back in 1976. Yes he misleads people and hypocritically uses the situation to his advantage in the same vain he accuses big pharma of by becoming a modern day snake-oil salesman, but the ad-hominem portrayal of a paranoid, anorak-wearing crack-pot acts to invalidate some perfectly reasonable questions. The fact that he's Australian could also allude to another infamous Aussie whistle-blower that authorities have had a problem with lately, one Julian Assange.

Perhaps Contagion's biggest problem however is that its all star cast and jumping all over the world doesn't leave much room for showcasing their talent. Nor do you really get the time to build an empathetic relationship with their characters where you probably won't really care which Hollywood superstar snuffs it next. Damon's everyman isn't really afforded the opportunity to capture grief very well as he quarantines himself and his daughter inside their house for the majority of the film while Winslet promises spunk but is sold short just as soon as she sparks interest. Cottilard's WHO (World Health Organisation) epidemiologist meanwhile is given perhaps the most dramatic story arc yet it is one the film shafts right until the end. So much so in fact that it needn't have been even incorporated into the script. Only is the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) head-honcho, played by Laurence Fishburne, given any sort of multi-faceted depth, embodying the same human fallacies of self-interest, stupidity and arrogance as the rest of us. Indeed, it is these three facets alluded to throughout the film which are more scary than any killer-virus could be. Moreover though the briskness with which Contagion shoots over everything, while admittedly serving well to create a fluidity of event, also unfortunately sacrifices character development for something which looks much more like a documentary.

But then, this is the nature of the beast where globe-trotting films are invariably driven more by events than characters. And yet, it still feels like a disappointing waste of talent, even a gimmick to pull in audiences. Everything would have worked exactly the same had its characters been played by just about anyone else. Consequently Contagion is a film without sympathy, as clinical as its scientists who scramble in their lab for a cure. Like the humans involved here it's not perfect, but if you're into your apocalyptic scenarios you might want to give this a go. Preferably with a face mask.

Matt Damon!

So here's 'me' jumping to the defence of teachers everywhere and telling a douche-bag camera guy where to go. Pwnage.

Film Review: Hereafter

What happens after we die? If there's anyone in Hollywood qualified to answer that question it'd be resident soul-searcher, Matt Damon. On a mini-spiritual fathom of late it seems (see The Adjustment Bureau), Damon appears to have gone all Bourne in his search for answers to life's big questions. Whether Hereafter sheds any light at the end of the tunnel however is another matter.

French journalist Marie LeLay (De France) has a near death experience at the hands of a tsunami while on holiday. Having caught a glimpse of the 'other side', she drops her fledgling career in a quest to find out more. In London, Marcus (McLaren) grieves for his twin-brother, Jason (McLaren), and seeks a way to maintain their connection. Meanwhile, George Lonegan (Damon) lives out a lonely existence, unable to share physical contact with others without invoking his genuine 'gift' to talk to the departed.

Make no mistake, Clint Eastwood's exploration of the afterlife (oh the irony) in Hereafter misfires on many accounts. The plucked-off-the-street East London twins can't act for shit, it follows that now overused structure of multiple story-lines spanning international borders and it is probably not as deep as it would like to think it is. Some might even accuse it of being mawkish, even criticising Hereafter on the basis of bad science and poorly executed paranormal themes. However this would be to miss the point entirely. Eastwood hasn't created a film that thrives on sensational supernatural events. Rather it is supposed to be a tender and melancholy exploration of life and death.

Hereafter has less to do with the idea of an eternal existence after we die than it does with how the living cope after the life of someone else has passed. In fact it avoids any commitment to the idea of some pearly white gate on a cloud, only ever alluding to the idea of consciousness after death. If anything Hereafter induces a pensive rumination buoyed by a measured narrative which revokes the need for a hurtling speed toward a conclusion. It encourages you to be contemplative.

Hereafter isn't a tale of the paranormal or what happens after death, but about the here and now. It is an open-ended enquiry to a question that may never be answered from the perspective of three individuals. Yes it is variable in places, but overall it is an absorbing and inscrutable inquisition of a phenomenon we may never fully understand.

Film Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Does free will exist? Or are we all travelling along a predetermined path otherwise known as fate? It is a question that has long animated philosophers and religious freakazoids alike. And, if the latter is taken to be true, who or what determines our respective destinies? It is a question which The Adjustment Bureau, based on Philip K. Dick's short novel 'Adjustment Team', attempts to shed some light on in its own unique fashion.

State Senate hopeful David Norris (Damon) meets dancer Elise (Blunt) after suffering a landslide election defeat. Despite forming an instant connection, Norris is resigned to the fact he'll probably never see her again. That is until by chance he bumps into her months later. However, nefarious men soon show up, seemingly intent on keeping the two star-crossed lovers apart.

Director George Nolfi manages to create an intriguing shroud of mystery surrounding the seemingly ubiquitous entities trying to stop Norris and what they are. While there are most certainly Judeo-Christian theological implications at work - references to their boss, a 'Chairman' with 'a plan' - their true nature is never fully revealed. At one point Norris asks whether they are angels, to which the reply is "We've been called that. We're more like case officers". As if to further cast doubt, in one scene an 'Adjustment Team' at work clearly uses some form of technology, rather than waving a mystical God rod. In this sense, they might not necessarily be angels as religious doctrine describes them and therefore, if anything, what they are cannot be understood in any meaningful way.

It is this deliberate refusal to to deliver an exposition on the who, what and why which allows Nolfi to strike a reasonably satisfying balance between being entertaining without becoming bogged down by laborious explanations and intellectually intriguing without being pretentious. This allows for the main philosophical themes of the film to be explored better. Can we fight fate? Where does chance end and destiny begin? Who's really in control?

What really drives The Adjustment Bureau however are the sparks between Damon's determined yet feckless Norris and Blunt's charming allure, managed by Nolfi in such a way that Hollywood's serendipitous cliches can be wholly overlooked. Their intense connection is enamouring, flowing in sync with the events around them. When you see that all the forces of the universe are against them you can't help but get caught in the whirlwind of rooting for them; in a manner similar to when you begin rooting for the Germans in Das Boot.

And this, with the frantic dash at the end, is where you realise that actually The Adjustment Bureau falls into that romance cliche. At its core it is a love story told through the medium of science fiction. Nonetheless, Nolfi's execution is to be commended. Skimping on potentially prolix explanations and having robust characters keeps the pace quick, leaving the audience satisfied with its unanswered questions.

Film Review: Green Zone

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon are reunited three years after Jason Bourne's trilogy ended. But is this Bourne in Baghdad?

If anything else the resemblance is striking. Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Rory Miller, attached to a special task force assigned to finding those elusive WMDs in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War. As Miller searches high and low across Iraq for the smoking gun to justify our presence there he continually comes up empty handed and begins to question the nature of the intelligence reports. Cue the descent into a conspiracy theory and factional infighting amongst elements of the US government about the 'real' reasons we went to war.

Yes, Green Zone is political, but it is also Hollywood, with substance. Damon is amazing as usual. There is something about the majority of his characters, an aura of integrity and humbleness which oozes through him. And this certainly suits the character he plays here. Miller is not some pinko-communist wet fish whinging about the war, but a consciences patriot, bewildered how his own freedom-loving land of hope and liberty could fabricate such a Machiavellian plot. Miller is essentially a man whose innocence has come under attack.

However, the film assumes a black and white morality when in reality the Iraq debacle is shrouded in grey. And this is the problem in big Hollywood productions; the perceived need to provide clarity instead of thoughtful ambiguity. In that sense then, the film may have missed a trick or two. It threatens to allow deliberation on several levels, but shies away at the last moment so as to provide what most American movie goers wish for, closure.

At the very least though this is a smart, thoughtful and exhilarating blockbuster with the Greengrass/Damon pairing once again in fine form. See it if you can.