Contagion

“Contagion” stars Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in this 105 minute film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns. This is a poorly written and directed film with skimpy production values and characters who are two dimensional.. Faced with so many named stars, one would expect a film that might support such a cast. Instead, it is a letdown. The viewer simply has a "who cares" attidue about each of them.The character played by Jude Law is more an intrusion into the film than any positive addition. One can only try to figure out the meaning of the film’s title as one can try to understand the casting of Elliot Gould as one of the world’s leading biology researchers. As the line in the film goes “If Sussman (Gould’s character) doesn’t get it…no one will” In this instance the writer is right…no one gets it. Touted as the great dethroner to box office leader “The Help” I would tell the producers of “Help” that if good taste and quality filmmaking still prevail, they needn’t worry. I give the film 2 stars and am probably being overly generous in doing that.