Hand sanitiser at the ready!

Utilising Orange Wednesdays, my boyfriend and I headed to the cinema recently to see the newly released movie Contagion. Not shy of Hollywood A-listers, Contagion is the 18th highest selling film in the opening weekend ever, grossing $73million at the box office. Not shy of Hollywood A-listers including brits Kate Winslet and Jude Law this movie had a lot to live up to.



The movie starts Day 2 of a deadly disease outbreak with Gwyneth Paltrow's character Beth as one of the first to contract the rare disease while on a business trip in Hong Kong. She then return to the US where she is warmly welcomed home by her husband (Matt Damon) and her son embracing him, thus the disease is spread.

The film then follows the spread of the disease and the efforts made to contain and irradiate it before it is too late. While the contagion develops out of control so does social order. Shops are destroyed in the search of any remaining food, murders occur for the same reason and an Australian blogger journalist Alan (Jude Law) claims to have the antidote to the deadly virus and begins to profit from others misfortune.



Matt Damon's character Mitch luckily shows an immunity to the disease which allows him to try to protect his daughter from the contagion. Throughout the movie you follow his struggle as well as many others including Dr Erin Mears (Winslet). Dr Mears is hired by the head of CDC (Centre for Disease Control) to investigate a possible source of outbreak as well as to contain its spread. Her demise comes at the hands of the contagion but not before she identifies the speed at which the disease will spread.

While this movie is not suited to sufferers of cleanliness OCD, and will leave any mild clean freaks with a strong desire to go home and have a shower,  personally I thought it was an intriguing and well acted film. With the recent outbreaks of bird and swine flu this film felt all the more relevant to society in this day and age as the Government was massively criticised for the lack of vaccination against the swine flu epidemic as is the situation in contagion.

The movie ends showing Day 1 of the contagion and how the unusual disease is developed in the first place. I particularly liked the ending sequence as it shows the simplicity of how a contagion of such multitude could be contaminated and spread so quickly.

A gripping and well acted disaster film but if you make it to the cinema to see it, don't cough or sneeze during the film and also take hand sanitizer if possible as it will make you feel a whole lot better when you reach for that next mouthful of popcorn.