20 September 2011

CONTAGION

 Today's weather - sunny
This is a movie starring quite a few big names like Matt Damon, Gwyneth Palthrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne etc. It was also quite funny for me to see brief cameos by Samo Hung, the Hong Kong and Macau casino magnum's daughter Josie Ho and our very own Ng Chin Han from our shores.


In essence, it tells the story of how the DNA of a bat and a pig somehow got interwined together to develop into a supervirus (not sure if I am using the right term here) that spread onto humans, much like the bird flu or swine fever, who dropped like dead flies within days of developing flu like symptoms. The virus epidemic became a pandemic within a matter of weeks, causing worldwide fear, societal breakdown and social disorder. Fortunately, an altruistic scientist went against the standard protocol and tested a potential vaccine on herself and saved the world.


I must say that whilst I am not a fan of Gwyneth Palthrow, her brief role in this movie as the source of infection, adulteress wife with an extramarital affair to how she went on to spread the virus to a worldwide audience and finally succumbing to sudden seizures and death won me over. Her acting was so believable, convincing and I feel conflicted on whether she deserved death for betraying her husband. A part of me felt it was her karma but yet I found it hard to accept that she was gone just like that at the snap of the fingers. In fact, I have to admit that her recent short acting stint on "Glee" was also very fantastic and I am just glad that she just won an Emmy Award for her role with her fabulous singing and acting in the television series.