Contagion - A Confusion

Watched the movie "Contagion" on IMAX over the weekend after positive reviews in the print and online media. Well, to be frank, I did not understand the movie beyond the basic premise of world's reaction (the world here is The USA, as always with Hollywood movies) to a deadly virus outbreak and a visual lecture on how the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), WHO and the pharma companies react to such a situation. This could have well been an awesome 2 hour documentary had the director removed all the star cast and put in more scientific explanations as to why few things are done the way they are visualized, but the director wanted to make it a mainstream cinema and what do we have? A confusing potpourri with no definite genre and a screenplay devoid of proper story. The film has 3 parallel story lines, all linked through a common thread, the deadly virus, with no convincing plot. There are no protagonists in the movie which is a saving grace, we don't want a mad scientist shunned by the intellectual community being the world savior by the end, so credit to the director for not employing a proven blockbuster theory into his movie. The key knots that untangle the mystery in overcoming this deadly virus was not explained, literally, there was no serious explanation on how the scientist comes up with a vaccine. The scientist tested the vaccine on herself, met an infected patient to check the vaccine and "TADA" next scene every top official was talking about distributing the vaccine to the common public. Another confusion was in the form of Matt Damon, this guy is said to be immune to this deadly virus and will/can never get infected. Great. Reason? There is no explanation to that and you cannot just say his immune system is better than the rest of the population and end that premise. Throughout the movie no other person is shown immune to this virus and Matt Damon is not even described as a one in a million case! So much for being immune to a killer disease. Another confusing characterization in the movie is in the form of Jude Law, I think I will have to wait for another week before Wikipedia can update the entire plot line along with character sketch for this particular player in the story.

Being confused after a movie like Inception or The Matrix is acceptable as there is more to the basic plot that needs to be understood to appreciate the movie better. This movie is a different case altogether, I had to basically struggle hard to even understand the basic plot and its ending, forget appreciating the nuances or subtle hidden messages.