Steven Soderbergh recruited one of his “Oceans 11” stars Matt Damon to round out another strong ensemble cast in the lethal virus thriller “Contagion,” opening Friday, Sept. 9, in 257 domestic IMAX theaters and at least 30 overseas.
IMAX is the best way to experience a movie like “Contagion” because the enormity of the screen encompasses most of your peripheral vision and therefore draws you in and heightens the tension.
From Hong Kong to Minnesota, Atlanta, and many other locations of the story about a deadly virus that is carried to the U.S. via Damon’s on-screen wife played by Gwyneth Paltrow, the anxiety associated with the resulting global panic envelopes the IMAX audience.
Interestingly, neither Damon or Paltrow or even Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, dominate the story. They are each simply characters in the story about innocent victims, medical researchers, and a blogger. In fact, that might be the only weak aspect to the movie, that there are almost too many stories and none in which the audience has enough time to become fully emotionally invested. Subplots involve an extra-marital affair by Paltrow discovered by her widower, the kidnapping of a key health official by a remote villager who seeks the first antidote to save his people, the uncertain motive of a high-profile blogger who discredits another health official, any one of which could have been more compelling if explored in more depth.
But in this world of TV procedurals like NCIS, Bones, and CSI, “Contagion” is an appropriate big-screen companion, and IMAX offers the biggest screen version.
The Warner Bros. Pictures presentation is rated PG-13.
— By Scott Hettrick