Tweet
Steven Soderbergh goes back to the techniques and storytelling methods that he used in Traffic to approach the outbreak of a deadly virus and the resulting effects on a global scale.
The opening shot has a close up of Gwyneth Paltrow - looking ill and worse for wear, with the title Day 2 on the screen. In an alarming series of simple close up shots of the credit card she handles, the drink she finishes and other simple mundane activities we're given the clues to how the virus spreads in a matter of moments - and how the next victims contract it. It's a very effective means of showing the simplicity of how it can spread, and how quickly it can spiral out of control.
As I mentioned before, Soderbergh goes back to the techniques he used to tell the saga of criss crossing storylines in Traffic and in an earlier film he directed The Underneath - using different color filters to shift from plotline to plotline, showing the different points of view from the generals down to the foot soldiers involved in the frontlines of the conflict. He explores the points of view from the various governments (the CDC, WHO and even the Chinese government), the field agents sent to investigate the outbreaks, the speculators and even the survivors of the victims of the deadly virus. Each level shows their frustrations in getting answers or trying to resolve the issues and their missteps in taking action to contain and fix the virus. The results are not always encouraging when it comes to trying to cure or vaccinate the outbreak.
It's shot almost like a docudrama but with a thriller element to this - and it's definitely not prone to melodrama or sensational last minute heroics like previous films have handling similar subject matter (like Outbreak). It shows that the process of trying to resolve a deadly outbreak like the one hypothesized in the movie is a slow one - a matter of doing the detective work in determining where it came from, where it spread to and figuring out a means of containing the virus without panicking the public that's already skeptical about the efforts made during the H1N1 virus and other outbreaks that had affected the public before. The trying to nail down a vaccine or cure for the virus proves even more slow and frustrating - bureaucratic and safety hurdles are legion, and a hit or miss approach to finding the solution shows how bad things could get if the virus spread quicker than the means of treating it could be. Granted, this movie imagines a close to worst case scenario, but it does try to approach such a dire situation with a credibility that would normally be elusive in a more conventional Hollywood movie.
It's not bad at all, and I admire that the film doesn't shy away from killing characters impartially in some cases - sometimes almost clinically to reinforce the point of how something like the scenario presented could affect people's behavior and how morality could take a back seat to survival.
The opening shot has a close up of Gwyneth Paltrow - looking ill and worse for wear, with the title Day 2 on the screen. In an alarming series of simple close up shots of the credit card she handles, the drink she finishes and other simple mundane activities we're given the clues to how the virus spreads in a matter of moments - and how the next victims contract it. It's a very effective means of showing the simplicity of how it can spread, and how quickly it can spiral out of control.
As I mentioned before, Soderbergh goes back to the techniques he used to tell the saga of criss crossing storylines in Traffic and in an earlier film he directed The Underneath - using different color filters to shift from plotline to plotline, showing the different points of view from the generals down to the foot soldiers involved in the frontlines of the conflict. He explores the points of view from the various governments (the CDC, WHO and even the Chinese government), the field agents sent to investigate the outbreaks, the speculators and even the survivors of the victims of the deadly virus. Each level shows their frustrations in getting answers or trying to resolve the issues and their missteps in taking action to contain and fix the virus. The results are not always encouraging when it comes to trying to cure or vaccinate the outbreak.
It's shot almost like a docudrama but with a thriller element to this - and it's definitely not prone to melodrama or sensational last minute heroics like previous films have handling similar subject matter (like Outbreak). It shows that the process of trying to resolve a deadly outbreak like the one hypothesized in the movie is a slow one - a matter of doing the detective work in determining where it came from, where it spread to and figuring out a means of containing the virus without panicking the public that's already skeptical about the efforts made during the H1N1 virus and other outbreaks that had affected the public before. The trying to nail down a vaccine or cure for the virus proves even more slow and frustrating - bureaucratic and safety hurdles are legion, and a hit or miss approach to finding the solution shows how bad things could get if the virus spread quicker than the means of treating it could be. Granted, this movie imagines a close to worst case scenario, but it does try to approach such a dire situation with a credibility that would normally be elusive in a more conventional Hollywood movie.
It's not bad at all, and I admire that the film doesn't shy away from killing characters impartially in some cases - sometimes almost clinically to reinforce the point of how something like the scenario presented could affect people's behavior and how morality could take a back seat to survival.
" 
Comment