Contagion
Contagion
#1Contagion
Posted: 7/14/11 at 10:42am
Matt Damon
Marion Cotillard
Kate Winslet
Laurence Fishburne
Jude Law
And Soderbergh directing.
I am so there on opening day.
Oh yea, Gwyneth is in it too. But it looks like she dies early on* so I can deal with that
*not really a spoiler, it's in the trailer.
Trailer
....but the world goes 'round
Tom1071
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/1/04
beautywickedlover
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/07
#4Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 1:08pm
*VERY BIG SPOILERS*
I saw it last night and, while intriguing, I felt that it left a lot of issues unresolved. On top of that, it seemed like only Matt Damon (as the husband of Gwyneth Paltrow's patient zero, who turns out to be the only known person immune to the disease) and Jennifer Ehle (as the workaholic doctor who develops the vaccine) were given three-dimensional characters to play.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#5Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 1:26pm
CONAGION was a more plot-driven film than it was character-driven. The ensemble of "star names" listed above and the other characters who we follow become a minor supporting role to the leading character, the leading character being Humanity.
This film really missed the mark for me. It was entertaining, but it left too many unanswered questions, too many plot holes, and not enough resolution.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
#6Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 1:34pmYou should write PR copy. Your "the leading character being Humanity" is the kind of BS jargon that ad-folk love to use when a film so spectacularly misses the mark that it doesn't develop any of its characters.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#7Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 1:53pm
I too was left cold by it. Would've loved to spend more time with Cotillard's character, whose growth seemed to occur in the forty minutes the film forgot about her.
For a global catastrophe, things seemed remarkably low-stakes for most of the characters.
The shadow of an environmentalist message at the end was overshadowed by a very compelling argument for proper food handling.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#8Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 1:57pmCotillard's character was the most frustratingly underdeveloped and unresolved. I won't say any more here for spoiler purposes, but the final scene she was in was ridiculous.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#9Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 2:06pm
Fortunately, Cotillard is a compelling enough actress to keep her role interesting.
The film was fortunate is fill its cast with such wonderful actors. It was extremely reliant on their abilities to make it.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#10Contagion
Posted: 9/11/11 at 5:25pmI just saw it and I thought it was interesting and intriguing, but it seemed to abandon the "global epidemic" fairly early and became too focused on the US response/resolution, which was such a cliched perspective.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
pushdabutton
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/05
redmustang
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
silversurfer2
Broadway Star Joined: 7/20/07
#14Contagion
Posted: 9/12/11 at 9:41am
Saw it on Saturday night and was severely disappointed. This is truly a movie that will strive on its star cast alone. If it wasn't jam-packed with Oscar winners, this would just be a less action-filled and more pretentious "The Day After Tomorrow".
While the first third of the movie shows a lot of promise and actually builds a fair amount of tension, the direction the rest of the plot decides to take is pretty boring and not very entertaining at all. Lots of scientific speak that really doesn't make a ton of sense (ya know, considering this is a FAKE disease so why should an audience care so much about FAKE scientific formulas?) does not a potboiler make. And the two most interesting storylines (Marion Cotillard's and Kate Winslet's) are cut FAR too short. And the dialogue was cheesy to the max. Really, really bad dialogue.
Overall, fairly entertaining. Would I recommend it? Nah. And definitely don't waste extra money on IMAX (spoken by a true fan of the IMAX experience). This movie is a major disappointment.
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