Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Everyone. Ever. But I'll just list those on the front of the movie: Marion Cotilliard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishbourne, Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet
"If I could put your computer in jail, I would."
When this movie was first out in theaters ... well, actually from the first time that I saw a trailer for this movie, I wanted to see it. However, as I am pretty much the only person I know who would gladly sit through a two hour documentary on the effects of a pandemic of our society, I could not get anyone to go see it with me.
As a reward for just being awesome, I bought this movie for myself and my Mom and I [and my Dad kind of, he was mostly sleeping] watched the movie this evening.
Wow.
Again, I feel like a disclaimer is needed here. I loved this movie. It was probably the most realistic fictional depiction of a pandemic and what would happen at all levels of society. I liked that there were several different story lines going on at all times, even though they did not all intersect directly. I also loved that it seemed like even the smallest parts of this movie were played by well-known actors and actresses [Jennifer Ehle and Demetri Martin as CDC Scientists, Elliot Gould as a renegade non-CDC Scientist, John Hawkes as a freaking Janitor, Bryan Cranston as some sort of Military Dude to name a few]. Some people might find it a bit dry, mostly because this is not a Michael Bay film and therefore absent of extreme explosions and flying bodies from demolished buildings.
To "briefly" sum up, like I said before there are several different storylines:
Gywneth Paltrow is Patient Zero, a woman from Minnesota in Hong Kong on business. Once we take a look at her and realize that she is sick and totally having an affair with some dude in Chicago, we start seeing other people who are sick all over the place. She comes home to her husband Matt Damon [as I said "Who would cheat on Matt Damon?"] and then proceeds to not only get more sick, but her son also gets sick. *** SPOILER***: Gywneth and her son totally die. It's not pretty. Matt Damon has such a hard time accepting it that after he is told that his wife is dead, he asks if he can speak to her, please. *** END SPOILER*** We then find out that Matt is actually immune to the disease and his daughter might be too, but because there is no test that can be done, he will have to protect the crap out of her. His storyline basically follows the destruction and chaos that follow the Marshal Law put into place in their hometown.
Laurence Fishbourne works at the CDC and he is in charge of making sure that things don't get blown out of proportion and to try and fix the sick people. He sends Kate Winslet into the field to try and figure out what is going on. Her American accent is spot-on [or as my Mom said "She sounds weird."] and she is very good at talking to people and writing in her notebook. She does her best to get centers set up to tend to the ill people, which is good because even on her diet of Taco Bell and room service, she gets sick too.
Jude Law is a blogger who is trying to sell a story about the upcoming pandemic to the Chronicle [I think he's in San Francisco? I'm basing this on the street where his house is located, which goes like this \]. When he is turned down he decides that he can make a profit by teaming up with some shady Alternative Medicine guys and promoting "Forsythia" and its magical healing powers on his blog. He is also considered so much of an expert that he gets to go on-air with Laurence Fishbourne and accuse the CDC of keeping the true cures from the people to try and make money [eventually he is proven an idiot and a terrible person, and the line above about putting his computer in jail is in fact directed at Jude Law].
Laurence Fishbourne tries to do his best and get his fiancee out of Chicago, which is about to be quarantined. Even though he tells her not to tell anyone, she has to tell her BFF, who then posts it on FaceBook ... which is what is wrong with our society today. When someone tells you to keep your mouth shut, that does not mean that you are allowed to type it out and post it on the Internet. This, of course, gets Laurence Fishbourne in trouble with Congress and all sorts of important people.
Last, but certainly not least Marion Cotilliard is a WHO official who goes to Hong Kong to try and determine who the exact Patient Zero is to try and pin-point the start of the pandemic. She verifies that it is in fact Gwyneth Paltrow and that the other original infected people came in contact with her in a casino in Hong Kong. One of the gentlemen she is dealing with tells her how his village is infected and how his mother is dying of the disease. Once she tries to leave Hong Kong, of course they kidnap her and force her to stay with them as a bargaining chip to get the vaccine first. She stays with them for quite some time and even is teaching their children when she is called back and the "vaccines" are brought in.
The movie ends with a quick montage of how Gwyneth caught the disease in the first place.
I'm going to end with saying that A) For this being the first movie to have Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon and Jude Law since The Talented Mr. Ripley, I was not disappointed, and B) I am going to wash my hands.
Like, right now. You should too.
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