Concrete Playground

If ever there were a movie that should have had joint investment with a pharmacy brand, it would be Contagion. Because without doubt, even the hardest cynic will reach for the antibacterial hand wash over the frangipani after seeing this film.

Written after the worldwide SARS, swine and bird flu scares, Contagion takes its story from a new outbreak of a deadly virus, which spreads around the world quicker than it can be contained and brings in most of Hollywood's big-name actors along the way. Starring Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard — it could almost read as an Oscars guest list. All turn out very serious performances as each and every one is somehow touched by the deadly disease.

This movie will remind many of Dustin Hoffman's 1995 film Outbreak, with a similarly untraceable disease killing off its carriers before there's a chance to be cured; however, that film's strength was the search for the original source, a monkey. In this film, the competing storylines do lose a driving force for the plot as we move between the average Joe, the doctors and the government officials trying to contain the disease.

Without a doubt, though, this film is spooky. A group of people caught a lift after seeing it, and all quite visibly shied away from being the one to press the button, lest it be a harbourer of some vicious germs. Your usual disaster movie dramas make an appearance — young love, crazy naysayer, government secrets — but because of the hefty weight that the talented cast add to each storyline, the scales tip in favour of making this film one worth seeing. Just maybe not the best date movie — you might be turned off a goodnight kiss.