A movie that's willing to kill off one of its stars is usually pretty good

"Contagion" is one of those movies that surprises you (or me at least), it's a lot better than I would have thought of expected. It's a medical thriller on a fairly grand scale, with a narrative taking place across the globe, on various continents, with several megastar actors all playing relatives small roles in this ensemble piece: Gwynyth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marilyn Cotillard, Laurence Fishurne (if anyone's the lead, it's him) - all pretty good - and this from someone who generally hates this kind of multi-narrative ensemble story, such as Crash, with all its heavy-handed imagery and sociopolitical pretensions. Contagion is about an outbreak, an epidemic, of a plague related to avian flu, that seems to start in China or Hong Kong, and is brought to the States by a world-business traveler (Paltrow) who spreads the disease not only to her home in Minneapolis, where she had a brief fling with an X on her way home (this fact nearly makes her husband, Damon, question everything - he never would have known but for the forensic investigation. To give you a sense of the honesty of this movie (spoiler alert): both Paltrow and Winslet die of the disease. Wouldn't you think they're too important characters (or actors) to dump into a grave halfway through the film? In most films, at least one of them would heroically beat the odds and survive. Contagion is a very compelling and largely credible dramatization of how this plague would or could play out on many fronts: the medical investigation, the media coverage, the local panic, the CDC response, the profiteering, the allegations of favoritism, the effect on a single family (Damon's). I have only a few quibbles: movie makes the CDC doctors (with one possible minor exception) and the WHO doc into the great heroes and everyone else (local doctors, media) is villainous. But by and large it's very good, avoiding both sentimentality and sensationalism. The ending, which in a montage of just a few moments, traces for us the progeny of this plague, is very provocative as well. Steven Soderbergh directed - very professional, well-paced, and for the most part on the money.