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Created Sep 15, 2011 06:38AM PST • Edited Mar 11, 2020 07:35PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   This movie is sick, literally. That’s not a bad thing as star-studded disaster movies go, though this one is more paranoiac than most. Fantasizing about the Mother of All Communicable Diseases does make it more than a little fascinating. Is that sick to say?

   The star-studded cast proves its necessity as various members start dying. Good thing the big names keep appearing, otherwise things would get thin pretty quickly. So it goes with big-time disaster movies.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon make an interesting couple, she flirtatious and outgoing, he somber and stout. Together they anchor the rather episodic plot. Paltrow deserves special props for dropping her glamour after the contagion hits.

   Laurence Fishburne and John Hawkes disappoint. These two lauded actors need the right parts to shine. They don’t find them here.

   Jude Law rides the line between annoying and amusing as a pesky blogger.

   Marion Cotillard has an undefinable charisma, though her part barely allows her to use it.

   Kate Winslet is stuck with some of the less believable dialog, so doesn’t come across as strongly as she often does.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Episodic, as disaster films typically are, Contagion manages nonetheless to maintain a pulsing energy. Credit that to ace director Steven Soderbergh.

    The story is just OK however, straining evermore to maintain credible tension about who knows what when. In a real epidemic, everyone in the world would know how dangerous it is by the time thousands of people have died. In Contagion, everyone thinks they’re keeping a secret.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

    The Fierce violence rating mostly reflects the disease-caused deaths, and at least one wonderfully gross autopsy. Nothing to lose your head over…

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Fierce 2.1

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

    The New York Times describes what’s real and what’s not about Contagion in The Cough That Launched a Hit Movie.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Glib 1.6

24. Physical Natural 1.0