Contagion Reviews

Everybody has already said this, but TRULY this movie felt like a documentary about COVID-19. 😭 I genuinely paused the movie multiple times like… THIS WAS MADE IN 2011?! Like WHAT?? That is actually insane. Life imitates art forreal.

Obviously, the movie wasn’t predicting COVID specifically, but watching it now is genuinely surreal because so many things feel way too familiar. People fighting over groceries, panic spreading faster than the actual virus, misinformation and fear-mongering online, people exploiting the situation for money, governments struggling to keep up, and just the general uncertainty of everyone not knowing what the hell was going on. Like seriously, they did such a good job making this feel realistic.

And I think what’s craziest is that this movie came out nine years before COVID-19 became a global pandemic. It basically showed a bunch of situations that we would later see play out in real life. Obviously the director didn’t know a massive pandemic was coming, but watching this afterward really makes you think about how many lessons were already sitting there in a movie. There are especially parts involving government responses, misinformation, public panic, and how people react when they’re scared where I was just sitting there like… damn. 😭

I also really appreciated that this is a drama rather than a horror movie. I actually saw that listed in the HBO Max description beforehand, because if I hadn’t, I probably would’ve gone into this expecting some kind of horror movie. Knowing what kind of movie it was made it so much easier to appreciate what it was actually trying to do instead of sitting there waiting for something scary to happen.

And honestly, I think that might be why some people don’t like this movie. It’s very dialogue-heavy and spends a lot of time explaining things, investigating, and showing how people respond to the outbreak rather than constantly giving us huge dramatic moments. But I genuinely think that’s what makes it work. It doesn’t need to exaggerate the situation because the situation itself is already terrifying. The realism is the point.

Art has always been able to serve as a warning, and I think Contagion is a really interesting example of that. It’s obviously not some prophetic movie where the director magically knew what was coming 💀, but it showed how quickly a disease could spread and how human behavior could make an outbreak even worse. Watching it after COVID just makes those themes hit completely differently.

Also, the cast??? INSANE. Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne… genuinely stacked. And they all ate. Everyone felt believable in their roles, which was especially important for a movie that relies so heavily on realism.

I was genuinely so sad when Kate Winslet’s character died. 😭 Pobrecita fr. She was literally out there risking her life trying to help people find a cure, and her death is so sudden and unglamorous because… that’s how this shit happens. And I especially loved that the last meaningful thing we see her do is an act of kindness. She’s actively dying, freezing, and still tries to give her jacket to the man beside her. 💔 It’s such a small moment, but it says so much about the people her character represents.

And not to sound crazy, but THIS is why I love movies about humanity having to band together during some massive disaster. There’s something weirdly hopeful about them. The situation is dark, terrifying, and heartbreaking, but then you get these tiny moments where people actually come together and help each other. I feel like Contagion especially needed those moments because so much of the movie focuses on the people panicking, rioting, hoarding, and generally making everything worse. 🌝

I also really liked that they didn’t make Jude Law’s character secretly “right.” At first I was genuinely like, “Damn… maybe he actually knows something the government doesn’t.” But nope. His ass was just crazy. 😭 He was exploiting people’s fear for money and ultimately contributed to people getting hurt and killed. And honestly, that felt realistic too. During COVID, there were SO many people claiming they had the cure, pushing fake treatments, spreading misinformation, or telling people not to get vaccinated while making money off of people’s fear. Like the similarities are actually insane.

And then there’s Matt Damon’s character, who I really liked. This is literally like my fourth Matt Damon movie and I’ve officially decided that I like him and he’s a good actor. 🫡 I know everyone was obviously waiting for my approval before they could give him awards and praise, so you’re welcome. 😍

I thought his character was such an honest portrayal of a dad just desperately trying to keep his daughter alive during an absolutely insane situation. And then finding out that his wife had been cheating on him on top of everything??? Like DAMN. 😭 He’s already dealing with the death of his wife, trying to protect his daughter, and then finding out she was unfaithful after she’s gone just adds another layer of grief to everything.

But honestly, I felt the WORST for the stepson. 😭💔 That poor six-year-old did absolutely NOTHING. He got the damn bubonic plague, was probably terrified, and died without either of his parents there. LIKE HE WAS SIX. 😭💔 That part genuinely broke my heart.

Overall, I really liked Contagion. It’s realistic, unsettling, surprisingly hopeful in certain moments, and watching it after COVID makes the entire movie feel completely different than it probably did in 2011. I’m honestly glad I watched it now because I think I appreciated what it was trying to say so much more. It’s not trying to be some over-the-top disaster movie. It’s showing how something like this could happen, how people react when they’re afraid, and how both the best and worst parts of humanity can come out during a crisis.

And the fact that Ithis movie is from 2011 is still fucking crazy to me. 😭