Connor Bynum // Film Critic
Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller was met with little more than a collective shrug upon its initial theatrical release. Critics and audiences dismissed it as little more than a retread of 1995’s OUTBREAK at best and farfetched alarmist nonsense at worst. Cut to nine years later…
As it turns out, CONTAGION was eerily prophetic in the ways it predicted how Americans alone would react to the very real COVID-19 pandemic that would halt the world for nearly two years and claim almost seven million lives. While not everything in the film is 100% accurate to what happened in real life, such as the film’s death count being closer to thirty million, the film strikes a nerve in an undeniably more profound way now that audiences have lived through so many of the events it portrays.
Movie Grade: B+
CONTAGION follows an ensemble cast that each tells smaller isolated stories that comprise the larger narrative. Matt Damon plays Mitch Emhoff, your typical every-man whose wife, Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), returns from a business trip in China and is not feeling very well. Her condition spirals rapidly, resulting in her unexpected death, leaving medical professionals at an utter loss for words as they have no idea what brought about Beth’s untimely demise.
Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne), head of the World Health Organization, sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) to investigate the mysterious illness that took Beth’s life, and things quickly begin to spiral as more cases begin to turn up. What starts as one death turns into four, then sixteen, then two hundred, etc. It’s discovered that this disease is spread through physical touch and proximity to those already infected. What’s worse is that many infected patients may not even be showing symptoms, yet they still can be contagious to those around them.
The government quickly calls for a mandatory shelter in place for all citizens as medical professionals scramble to develop a vaccine to end this pandemic. Meanwhile, conspiracy theorist/blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) has convinced himself and his following of over twelve million people that a cure for this virus already exists in homeopathic treatments that the pharmaceutical companies don’t want the public to know about. This is definitely one of the more interesting storylines in the film because Krumwiede never explicitly denies the existence of the virus; far from it. He understands it is very real and insists on wearing a visually comical homemade bubble suit whenever he commutes in the public sphere.
However, the movie is certainly far from perfect. Outside of inadvertently predicting COVID-19, the film doesn’t know what to do with many of its ideas. For example, while isolating at home with his daughter, Mitch sees one of his neighbors’ homes burglarized and possibly killed with the sound of gunfire happening behind darkened windows. Naturally, Mitch feels the need to arm himself to protect his daughter if the burglars ever come to his house. So, he breaks into one of his other neighbors’ abandoned homes to get a shotgun, which he never ends up needing for the rest of the film. Likewise, Krumwiede’s storyline is given very little resolution as the film seems afraid to say whether or not his conspiracy theories actually held any water by the end.
CONTAGION is a very effective film that perfectly predicted what many thought impossible in modern society. However, it ultimately isn’t able to tell a compelling story for its characters living within the overarching pandemic narrative. It’s still worth viewing in a post-COVID society, but those who’ve heard that the film is a newfound modern masterpiece should temper expectations.
Video/Audio Grade: A
CONTAGION is presented in a native 4K resolution and is downright stunning. It’s also presented in a taller 1.78:1 aspect ratio compared to its theatrical 1.85: 1 ratio, which would have featured black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. It’s worth noting that this taller ratio was also present in earlier Blu-ray releases of the film, but it’s nice to see it maintained in this newer 4K release. Soderbourgh’s visual style is a feast for the eyes. The director captured the film digitally in a native 4.5K resolution, and everything is beautifully crystal clear. As we transition between differing storylines, each one is saturated with a distinctive color palette. Whether it’s very warm (with lots of oranges and browns) or cool (with desaturated blues, whites, and greens), each scene is given a vivid sense of style and tone reminiscent of Soderbough’s body of work.
Skin tones, costumes, and practical sets are also very detailed. Beads of sweat, skin irritation, and dried vomit around the mouth are all given that extra level of pop we’ve come to expect from 4K UHD. Minor texts on computer screens and phones are also highly polished and easily read with increased resolution. The aforementioned color palette is also greatly improved with the addition of HDR10. There is no Dolby Vision this time around, but HDR10 does more than enough to enhance the contrast to utter perfection.
The audio is limited to a DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, which is disappointing not to receive a 7.1 or an Atmos mix. Still, it’s a solid track nonetheless. Cliff Martinez’s pulse-pounding score takes center stage in this mix, filling both the front and side channels and providing a solid immersion. Background audio is also very effectively implemented on the side channels to a degree where both of my cats thought people were talking in the house’s other rooms.
Extras Grade: D+
There is no included standard Blu-ray of the film, no slipcover, and only around twenty minutes of included bonus material, all previously available in the 2012 Blu-ray release. It would have been wise to include some new bonus material that directly addresses COVID-19 and the unshakable connections that can be made to this film. But sadly, that opportunity has gone ignored. Along with a digital copy code, we all get the following three features on the 4K disc.
- The Reality of Contagion (11 min.)
- The Contagion Detectives (5 min.)
- How a Virus Changes the World (2 min.)
Final Grade: B+
CONTAGION is a film that should be seen by everyone who lived through COVID and anyone interested in adding an excellent 4K UHD disc to their collection. The film may run out of narrative steam by the third act, but it is still a visual treat with a surprisingly efficient 5.1 audio mix.
