Cough, cough

In the modern age of Twitter, text messaging and around the clock news, information can spread like wildfire. In the epidemic thriller “Contagion,” it merely takes one blog post to incite riots and one text to put a life in danger. And you wonder why these things are called “viral.”

Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” is a precise thriller that charts the rapid spread of a highly contagious and lethal virus, one that starts with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) as she returns from Hong Kong and quickly spreads across the globe. 

It’s an engaging and squeamish thriller that makes you anxious to touch your face or move your foot on the sticky movie theater floor. And it disturbs you because this is the sort of mass panic that could happen today.

Its careful pacing and strict attention to detail reveal how connected we are here and now.

But the fear comes from Soderbergh’s weaving of a wonderful snowball effect of the instantaneous spread of germs, information, rumors, mistrust and conspiracy. 

It’s all done through intelligent, systematic and bookish storytelling in Scott Z. Burns’s screenplay. The jargon-filled script, staggering numbers and cut-the-crap delivery of all the characters leaves the audience in a similar state of overwhelmed anxiety.

“Contagion” is the sort of film that would say, “The virus has a quicker regeneration rate” instead of, “You would’ve been dead by now.”

The complexity of the film is not limited to its deep (and quite famous) cast or the urge to not condescend or label the disease with a catchy name. Rather, we realize a global disaster has both mental and physical causalities. 

We see it in the doctor (Kate Winslet) who knows the futility of her health precautions in the midst of the epidemic. We see it in the rogue blogger (Jude Law) who is more a fear-monger than any other character. And we see it in the Minnesota family man (Matt Damon) just trying to understand what has happened to his life and his world.

Damon is the most compelling emotional figure in the film, yet his scenes skillfully avoid melodrama. He shows the same restraint and everyman innocence he did in Soderbergh’s “The Informant!,” and resolutely, his tender reconciling with the fate of his wife is heartbreaking.

What’s more, the industrial rock score and Soderbergh’s own firm hand behind the camera give “Contagion” a truly modern vibe. It’ll be tough to wash your hands of this one.