Plays as an extended episode of the excellent Canadian TV show ReGenesis (watch it on Hulu Plus if you’re a fan of this film or Fringe). Soderbergh applies the multi-layered documentary-like formula of Academy Award-winning Traffic (2000) to a global virus pandemic, exploring also the societal implications – the contagion of fear, and morass of bureaucracy.

Not all of the characters ring true (e.g. Jude Law’s sensationalist blogger is a little too over the top), but that’s not the point: this is thinking person’s cinema, throwing a plethora of ethical dilemmas at you, probably too many for each to be properly considered.  Ultimately, a realistic ‘what if’?’ disaster movie – could this kind of pandemic occur?  If so, are we prepared?

½ (out of 5)