This suspenseless, made-for-USA-network sludge drains all the vitality out of what could have been a scary scenario about a '90s cholera outbreak with the potential to kill a sizable portion of the Western hemisphere. In the flatly lit, over-utilized, medium-shot style that is the hallmark
of TV-moviedom, CONTAGIOUS is about as thrilling as an infomercial for the Center for Disease Control.
Shrimp infected with cholera are served aboard a flight from Bogata, Columbia headed to Olympia, Washington. Among the stricken passengers is drug courier Doug Lamoreaux (Jed Rees), who has swallowed cocaine balloons for drug lord Sklar (Gerard Plunkett). In the Pacific Northwest, ace
epidemiologist Hanna (Lindsay Wagner) is summoned to investigate the rash of cholera cases, even though the first fatality--Lamoreaux--is misdiagnosed as drug-induced. Distracted by police indifference and difficulties with her surly new stepdaughter Julie (Alexandra Purvis), Hanna is unable to
find the link among the dead and dying.
Aided by police liaison officer Det. Lou Rojas (Elizabeth Pena) and health services assistant Carl Friedman (Matt Hill), Hanna tracks the epidemic. Det. Rojas investigates Lamoreaux's drug associates, one of whom, Gerard (Bill Croft), is infected. In a lucky break, Hanna traces a rash of illnesses
to Norma Meyers (Karen Elizabeth Austin), a volunteer at a homeless shelter who was recently in Bogota. Another passenger infects the food served at a banquet attended by Hanna's new husband Sam (Tom Wopat). Unaware that he's been exposed to cholera, Sam takes Julie and his son Brian (Brendan
Fletcher) on a remote camping excursion. While trying to prevent Sklar and his thugs from dispensing plague-infected cocaine, Lt. Rojas is wounded, but kills Sklar in return fire. Hanna obtains the airline's passenger list. Entrusting the disease control logistics to Carl Friedman, she flies off
to minister to gravely ill Sam, in the process winning Julie's heart. The epidemic peters out.
Despite graphics at the bottom of the screen that list key events in the story line's chronology, each scene in CONTAGIOUS seems numbingly like its predecessor. Attempting to soup up its heroine's race for a cure, the film illuminates her psychology with flashbacks to an African famine disaster
during which Hanna was unable to save the children. In Screenwriting 101, this overused device is known as a "ghost." However, Hanna is such an impersonally conceived savior that providing explanations for her undiplomatic nobility hardly seems worth the time and effort. Nor do her squabbles with
her bratty stepdaughter make her any more interesting. Viewers will resent all this gussied-up background info because they'll recognize them for what they are: stopgap delaying tactics in a disaster thriller. (Violence, profanity, adult situations.) leave a comment