Medical drama is chillingly compelling

We’ve watched any number of “medical” dramas about diseases, epidemics and pandemics, but Steven Soderbergh’s latest chiller, “Contagion,” has filled us with greater dread than any of them.

“Blame” it on the filmmaker’s great attention to believable detail – and, to empathetic feeling, which his stellar cast of fine actors helps him establish.

The medical drama’s very first sequence swiftly introduces its central problem, with Gwyneth Paltrow playing the new virus’ first victim and carrier, an American visitor to Hong Kong.

Haplessly for the rest of the world, she’s already homeward-bound when she contracts the new disease, thus “efficiently” spreading it from Asia to the Americas in a matter of days.

Global disaster

As the new virus’ victims collapse one after another, the vague outlines of a major global disaster quickly coalesce in truly tragic proportions: In only a few weeks, millions of deaths have been recorded, entire societies have ground to a halt, and survivors prowl the deserted streets, striving to stay alive until a vaccine has been discovered to stop the relentless pandemic in its tracks.

Another lead character, the first victim’s husband (Matt Damon) is unexpectedly immune to the disease. A third dramatic lead, Marion Cotillard, plays a medical sleuth who is held hostage in China by her interpreter.

Then, there’s the researcher who speeds up the testing process to save more lives by injecting herself with the new vaccine. And many other characters played by exceptional actors to keep the plot development consistently absorbing and vital.

Involvement

Thus, the virtues of gifted “ensemble acting” end up as the movie’s major asset. Also profoundly persuasive is Soderbergh’s firm focus on the human aspect of what could otherwise have ended up as yet another abstracted medical case study.

The filmmaker’s overriding concern for the characters he and his actors create enables the film to be much more than just an enumeration of deaths in the mega-millions. Thus, despite the heavy body count, viewers continue to feel for each victim or survivor singled out by the camera, and the drama’s emotional rising action is sustained.