Monday, September 19, 2011

infectious

"Contagion," the new metathriller gorgeously shot and rather playfully directed by Steven Soderbergh, is the filmmaker's Altmanesque take on a deadly disease that takes down a good part of the world's population in record time and, disturbingly, without any promise of surcease.

As the challenged professionals who work in disease control and prevention scramble to find clues and a cure, both the disease and the film itself breathlessly crisscross among locations and among an A-list cast.

The ever-reliable Matt Damon, who has slowly become this generation's Jimmy Stewart, anchors the film as a confused, frightened Everyman, but the acting honors here go to Jude Law who really rips into his entertaining role as an unctious San Francisco blogger named Alan Krumwiede (pronounced "crumb-weedy"), a creep replete with crooked teeth, and Jennifer Ehle (that's her above), who brings a Meryl Streep calm and professionalism to the role a committed scientist.

Topping it off is Cliff Martinez's jangly electric score which, like "Contagion" itself, is discordant, unnerving and yet perfectly right.

4 comments:

wwolfe said...

I'm glad to see Ehle again. I thought she was terrific in 1999's "Sunshine," but then she seemed to disappear. Now she's in "Contagion" and the upcoming "Ides of March," so maybe this is her year.

jbryant said...

Agree with wwolfe about Ehle in SUNSHINE. She is indeed fine in CONTAGION, too, which I saw yesterday and quite liked.

joe baltake said...

BTW, Ehle is also in the new Patrick Wilson series, "A Gifted Man," along with Margo Martindale.

Ben said...

So far so good. Watching right now