Contagion

Rated PG-13 for disturbing content and some language.

 

Contagion plays out more like a docudrama than a feature film. There are no impressive special effects. This disaster film focuses on the human story. It is crisp, lean, and stripped-down to the basics. However, director Steven Soderbergh did not scrimp on the star quality. Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes back from a business trip in Hong Kong. And all she brings back to the family is a nasty cough. This she shares with her son. Her husband, Matt Damon, couldn’t believe that he lost two members of his family in just 24 hours. Soon, it is clear, that her odd case infection pops up in Hong Kong and then Japan…and then all over the world. The CDC is brought in and Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet begin to track down the source and cause day by day. The World Health Organization gets involved as well. And soon the world is trying to figure out a way to solve the puzzle and produce enough serum to get to the world’s population; no small task, obviously.

The fly in the ointment is a nut-job blogger played by Jude Law. He gets his fifteen minutes of fame on TV touting a conspiracy theory (the drug industry wants millions to die to sell a solution) and a home-remedy which does absolutely nothing but make…Law’s character famous and based on one line, that I may have misconstrued, rich. This has a nice touch. So many people accept nonsense that spreads around the world — like a virus — which causes real damage. This is a nice parallel.

Elliot Gould plays a medical researcher who is told to stop messing with the virus but ignores his orders and eventually finds the solution. He gives us the best line aimed at Jude Law’s character: “Blogging isn’t journalism! It’s graffiti with punctuation!”

Contagion is a predictable film. There is very little high drama — more informational than entertainment. We get the message: wash your hands, don’t touch your face, shaking hands with strangers can spread deadly diseases and so on. Contagion makes very clear what it will be like when The Virus hits.

Contagion earns three half bow ties out of five.

 

Warrior

Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material).

 

Lights Out was a TV series last year — about a retired fighter — going back to the ring despite his wife’s objections to save his house from foreclosure. Warrior is about a high school teacher — a former mixed martial arts fighter — going back to the ring despite his wife’s objections to save his house from foreclosure. Both feature a father who is a coach for fighters and a brother who is also a former fighter.

Warrior’s twist is that the teacher brother (Joel Edgerton) eventually has to be matched in a fight with his own brother, a war hero and war veteran (Tom Hardy) who actually went AWOL and is wanted for desertion. Warrior’s family (pop and two sons) is severely dysfunctional primarily because dad (Nick Nolte — pulling out all the stops perhaps seeking an Oscar) is a recovering alcoholic and abused the fighter’s mother; suffice it to say there are a lot of issues plaguing the family and all of this is about a family trying to resolve their haunted past.

Warrior is testosterone-laden; lots of angst and sweat — and male bonding or male alienation. The two brothers each have their own set of supporters: the teacher has his students and the soldier has his fellow marines. The students do a lot of whoop-whooping and the Marines sing the Marine anthem before the brothers beat the tar out of each other.  It is hard to decide which side to cheer for…but the ending solves all of that. Schmaltzy it is and a bit of a tear-jerker. I got a little bored at the beginning and it bothered me that it seemed a rip-off of Lights Out — but as the film progressed I got engaged and, in the end, my annoyance melted away and I thought as fight dramas go — and we have had plenty lately — this is one of the best. The plot resolution made it all worthwhile.

Warrior earns four bow ties out of five