Matt Damon in the 2011 thriller “Contagion”…  a film about a viral outbreak emerging from a bat population in China that proceeds to devastate the world.

NICK OVERALL looks at what people are watching in a global crisis and it’s not what you think.

YOU’D think given our current circumstances we’d use what free time we have to tune out with some comfortable or easy watching, but fascinatingly, the trend is the other way.  

With the absence of cinemas people are turning to the internet for entertainment and films dealing with the very matters that are, well, plaguing us, which are currently some of the most watched and talked about (in a social-distancing way, of course). 

In more extreme situations than what we’re seeing in the real world, a few examples include “Outbreak” (1995), “I Am Legend” (2007) and Danny Boyle’s 2002 cult masterpiece “28 Days Later”. 

However, one film more uncomfortably close to home that’s skyrocketed to the top of the iTunes charts over a few weeks of self-isolation, is Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller, “Contagion”. 

If you’ve not seen it, or need to be reacquainted, it’s a film about a viral outbreak emerging from a bat population in China that proceeds to devastate the world.  

Though the virus in the film is far more deadly than what’s happening with COVID-19, its transmission and the attempts to deal with and understand it are unsettlingly similar. To paraphrase Kate Winslet as an epidemics expert: the world needs to self-isolate, wash your hands and whatever you do, don’t touch your face.

“Contagion” sets itself apart in the “viral outbreak” genre by taking a more grounded and realistic approach. Rather than follow a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic vision of the end-of-the-world (think, “Children of Men”), or a lone family’s journey to escape ever panicking masses (most recently, “A Quiet Place Pt II”), we view it through the perspectives of multiple characters in pivotal positions in the fight against an unseen assassin. 

Winslet is joined by Laurence Fishburne as agents of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, struggling desperately for an early containment. Jude Law is a conspiracy-theory “journalist”, amassing a cult-like online following and rallying them against the powers that be. Matt Damon is a father and the husband of “Patient Zero”, Gwyneth Paltrow, doing all he can to protect his family. 

“Contagion” unnerves and terrifies more subtly than films of a similar nature and content. The grainy, yellow-green hue overlayed on empty streets and brimming hospital corridors, is eerily effective – is the colour of death not black after all?

Winslet delivers a particularly strong performance, instilling dread with little more than a whiteboard marker, demonstrating how quickly this looming disaster is about to unfold. Equally, not unlike “Game of Thrones”, the tension remains high and the viewer on edge because they can never be sure just who will make it out the other side. 

Whether new to “Contagion” or revisiting, if you’re game, it’s worth it. Research for the script was undertaken with experts in the field. Screenwriter, Scott Z Burns, commented at the time that those professionals were of the belief that such dramatic events were “not a question of if, but when”.

“Contagion” offers an albeit extreme though “realistic” mirror of what humankind could potentially be up against. Whether it’s fear or fascination that leads us to be interested in such scenarios in both the best and worst of times, it is deserving of its resurgence.

“Toy Story 4” is now also streaming on Disney+, and that’s cool, too.

Here’s DOUGAL MACDONALD‘s review of “Contagion” from October 21, 2011:

Contagion (M) ★ ★ ★ ½

and “Toy Story 4”, June 21, 2019

Movie review / ‘Toy Story 4’ (G)