Contagion - Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Video

If you've ever been worried about a viral outbreak and the costs of a pandemic, this is not the film you want to see.

In the latest ensemble drama, Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Beth Emhoff, who's just back from a trip to Hong Kong - and is feeling somewhat rough. However, having returned to her Minneapolis home to hubby Mitch (Matt Damon), she promptly collapses, has seizures and dies.

At the same time, others begin to display similar symptoms and pretty soon, the Department of Homeland Security meets with Dr Cheevers (Laurence Fishburne) of the Centre for Disease Control amid fears it's a biological attack aimed to cripple America over Thanksgiving weekend.

So Cheevers dispatches an epidemiologist Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to Minneapolis to begin an investigation into what's going on - but it could all be too late amid fears the MEV1 pandemic's about to sweep the world. And with society breaking down amid quarantines and supplies shortages, there's everything at stake.

Contagion is a masterful film - it's intelligent, based on some good science and solid research and to be frank, utterly terrifying in places.

But unlike other Hollywood blockbusters of a similar ilk, this doesn't go for overblown action and hysteria - this latest from Soderbergh is more of a creeping dread and richly unsettling given how much reality it's based in.

There's been some serious scientific research into how diseases are tackled, the actuality of society breaking down and the methods of how scientists would react amid the unleashing of a new global virus.

The disparate threads of the story come together very well - and throw in a solid ensemble cast and you've got a recipe for unnerving cinema, replete with the possibilities of how it'd unfold. Tensions, disputes and a microcosm of detail are Soderbergh's specialities here and because of the depth of information, it's a gripping watch.

Don't get me wrong - this isn't a dull watch at all; it's simply a highly intelligent and smartly presented, masterfully crafted and brilliantly acted piece of What If? disaster movie that is so horrifying because of the depth of its research and the plausibility of its scenario. With reigned in directing and restrained acting, it's brutally successful at being so terrifying.

Just don't be surprised if after viewing it, you start to worry about that person coughing next to you on the bus or the constant sniffer in the office....

Extras: The reality of Contagion doco, behind the scenes with the people who wrote this, doco on how the virus changed the world

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