Within the first ten minutes of this film I felt physically ill, and all I'd seen was a feverish Gwyneth Paltrow. However, the opening sequence's montage was of surfaces; those multidinous points of contact we share with hundreds, even thousands of nameless, faceless strangers every day. Doorknobs, cellphones, faucets, bartops, railings, touchscreens... any surface that we thoughtlessly use within a regular day. Contagion is about just that, the networks of possible infection within our increasingly interconnected and interdependent populations, told with raw, emotional, and brutally honest intensity but in such a controlled way that at times it feels more documentary than melodrama. So engrossing is this film that not long after the opening credits rolled, I excused myself from the theater to wash my hands and splash some cold water on my face. It wasn't from gore, or handy-cam choppiness, or even a bad burrito, but from the overwhelming feeling of reality.

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) is "patient zero", effectively providing the film with the convenient connection for Americans to the virus, which spreads from Hong Kong when she returns from a business trip. From there disparate threads continue in Hong Kong, London, Moscow, Chicago, and (leave it to west coast film-makers to simply name the state) Minnesota. As the threads are connected, however, the establishing shot is accompanied by a number: the population of each place. This was an effective device given the exponential spread of disease through major population centers. As the disease spreads and more people become embroiled, Director Steven Soderbergh does an impeccable job of weaving the various strands of the global epidemic together. The stoic and hardened Dr. Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and his eager, if somewhat naive, field agent Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), who attempt to control both the epidemic as well as the public perceptions of it as it grows increasingly out of control. Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon) attempts to protect his only surviving daughter after Beth and his step-son succumb to the disease. Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) plays a specialist in the CDC lab attempting to synthesize an antivirus. Of particular interest is the counter-culture element, a wily conspiracy-inclined blogger named Alan Krumwiede, who Jude Law plays with the same sticky kind of vileness he had in Road to Perdition, yet somehow endears the audience to his message of a massive public health coverup.

The film is perfectly paced, matching in increasing intensity the way that a disease epidemic might spread. Most noteworthy is the theme not of viral contagion, but of emotional contagion. The idea of the disease seems to infect far more readily than the actual virus, and the slow descent of civilization under siege is depicted with control and honesty. If there is anything to criticize within the film, it is the liberal use of montages, which given the timeframe and pace of the film are almost a necessity. By the end of Contagion they move almost seamlessly, but in the beginning feel contrived or dramatized. Even the music has one feeling like they might be watching a pharmaceutical commercial at times. Also, the film is utterly devoid of perhaps the most ubiquitous human response to any kind of epidemic: religion. In an age where massive prayer rallies are invoked to solve the national debt, religious fervor is conspicuously absent from Soderbergh vision.

Still, Contagion is an utterly engrossing film. There wasn't a weak performance by even the most trivial character, and the story was wonderfully paced; society crumbling into chaos and desperation told in the most controlled fashion that it makes it feel almost real. Real enough to want to sanitize everything in your house.