Soderbergh is just the man to take on a chilling topic such as widespread global panic. And with a cast that prominently features seven Academy Award nominees, ‘Contagion’ could have been not only great, but also a truly important piece of work.

All potential dries up due to its lack of a plot. The film more closely resembles an interpretation of how we would handle an epidemic if the world was run by movie stars.

Soon after returning from a business trip in Hong Kong, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) dies of a seizure that can’t be explained. Her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), mourns her and becomes determined to protect his daughter at all costs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention starts an investigation, led by Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishbone) and Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet). The constant updates concerning the prevalence of the unknown virus suggest the fate of the entire world is at stake.

As the death toll soars into the tens of millions, panic consumes seemingly every neighborhood on the planet. The hysteria is only heightened by the efforts of controversial journalist Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), who asserts that the government is hiding the cause and cure of the disease. Mitch is now just one of millions of fathers fighting for his family’s safety amid the rioting and violence, with humans proving to be nearly as threatening as the disease itself.

Not quite your typical apocalyptic thriller, ‘Contagion’ is stylish and entertaining with its unusually long takes and jarring contrasts of bright and drab hues to mark the mood. Every shot is visually striking, and Academy Award-winning Soderbergh certainly knows how to build suspense. But in the midst of this stunning filmmaking is a confusing lack of simple story construction.

While the ensemble cast is effective in relating different experiences of the epidemic, there is nothing to tie them together, and in the end, there is no real reason to care. The main characters endure their fair share of conflict, but their pain isn’t vital to the story. Soderbergh becomes too obsessed with listing facts and figures regarding the disease. By painstakingly describing the particulars of the source, strain and symptoms of the virus, he loses sight of the characters altogether. The only character the audience can latch onto is Mitch. His predicament is engrossing and even heartrending, but his storyline is only one of the six with any weight, a very unfavorable percentage.

The film places too much emphasis on the various problems with the discovery and distribution of the vaccine. The characters become increasingly hard to relate to and empathize with. Laurence Fishburne has the most screen time, but his character is almost unnecessary. The storyline surrounding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, already desperately in need of emotional energy, could be summed up in one scene or two. In keeping with the odd allocation of screen time to unworthy characters, the great Marion Cotillard is not only underutilized, but her arc — that of a kidnapped doctor forced to acquire the vaccine for a Third World village — is choppy and borderline ridiculous.

Even with the elite Damon and Winslet doing their best to revive the drama, Soderbergh designs the film in such a way that one can only appreciate the style, for there is hardly any substance. One of the most prolific, successful and respected filmmakers of the past two decades, the 48-year-old Soderbergh has announced he will retire in the next year or two. Let us hope he makes better use of his time.

smlittma@syr.edu

Published on September 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm