Contagion (2011) movie review

Welp, in 2011 Contagion director and screenwriters and those involved had a heck of a crystal ball.

Short version is that for those of you who cannot get enough of the Covid19 mess, sit down to 90+ minutes of Contagion which has been the basic script for our 2020 experience. If you want a pretty good Hollywood interpretation that played out remarkably like reality then I recommend it. Strong and surprisingly real/accurate plot, strong acting, great cast, excellent sets and location. Overall a very good film.

Actors: Lawrence Fishburn, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gweneth Paltrow, Jude Law, & Brian Cranson all turn in excellent performances.

I saw this movie many years ago and had a copy but it just seemed too heavy to watch again until today since, ya know, we've lived it.

SPOILERS BELOW.

The story centers around several main characters. There is patient zero who comes in contact with a butcher who is carrying the illness from some unclean freshly butchered swine which had come in contact with a diseased bat. In China. She spreads it all around China, then returns to the US where she spreads it around.

The WHO and CDC spring into action with more competence than we experienced. Terms like "social distancing" and explanations of sneezing, touching, etc. are given and we see a lot of mask wearing.

We watch as society quickly devolves, schools and public locations shut and are vacant, and looting, violence, hoarding, and mayhem ensue.

We see the race for a vaccine and much speculation and rumors floating around about conspiracies, corruption, etc. as death numbers skyrocket. When a vaccine is developed there is a lottery on who gets it.

Overall, it's a film I paid little attention to as an interesting movie when I saw it many years ago, but now having lived it to an extent it was remarkable in the accuracy and details that we have all now likely seen in real time or on actual footage.

Details and predictions include cell phone videos of public deaths on a bus or elsewhere, state officials secreting people away, scarcity of resources, shortages, travel bans, runs on resources, discussions on profiteering on pharmaceuticals, vacant areas like roads and airports, shut schools and businesses, looting, robbery, violence, home invasions, panic, etc.

It is a very well done film. Strong acting, directing, cast, and plot with excellent international backdrops and moral issues to wrestle with and some conspiracies therein. I recommend it.

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Contagion (2011) movie review