In Memoriam: Ronnie

Tonight our cat Ronnie succumbed to an illness that had weakened him severely over the course of a week. Though we knew it could end up the way it did, we were hopeful he would show improvement, as his older brother suffered the same symptoms a few weeks earlier and he recovered apparently completely. He lived. Ronnie, sadly, did not. Unwilling to eat or drink and plagued by a harsh fever and continuous bloody diarrhea, Ronnie finally died of his exhaustion early this morning.

Unlike his siblings from the same nest, Ronnie was somewhat wilder, more timid and harder to fully get to appreciate than his much more amiable and sweet-talking brothers. However, those he knew and trusted he let in completely, allowing them to pat him just as lovingly as his brothers, except he wasn't afraid to show his affection in a more violent manner by using his claws and teeth if you weren't careful. Though not the most typically affectionate cat in the household, Ronnie very much anticipated the needs of his humans, and accordingly followed his own routine perfectly in sync with theirs. He'd escort my father on his way to the bakery and made sure my mother went to bed on time. The three red cats formed a beloved part of our family, each with his own personality, completing each other perfectly. They also had formed a good bond amongst themselves, instead of aggressively disliking their siblings as is more usual among cats. Like his older brother, Ronnie was the adventurous type, and he went for much further walks than his brothers who generally stuck closer to home.

Considering this, it may not be a coincidence that the both of them caught this illness, the type of which remains unknown (but hopefully will not spread to the rest of our pets!). Like his mother and his older brother, you could often find him welcoming you home on the street after a hard day's work, even though you would prefer if he stayed in the safer confines of the backyard and alley. Also like his mother, Ronnie died of a heinous disease at much too young an age, not even seven years old yet in his case. He was in his prime and should have had many more good years to follow, but it was not to be. He will be sorely missed by us all, likely even by his brothers who will now have to play together without him. Hopefully they will be able to do so for many years to come at least.

Today's Mini-Review: Contagion

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

Starring: Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

USA: Warner Bros., 2011

Steven Soderbergh's cautionary tale about the dangerous reality that is (and/or could be) a deadly global pandemic and its disastrous effects of human society and sense of morality proves an often harrowing but ultimately overly clinical film. Gwyneth Paltrow returns home from a business trip (which included some secret bedding out of wedlock) and is struck by seizures. Her husband Matt Damon rushes her to a hospital where she soon dies, much to everybody's shock and surprise. Her demise is only the beginning, as the disease that killed her – a fictional form (fortunately!) of meningoencephalitis – soon manifests itself all over the globe. The social order starts to break down everywhere as governments are unable to cope with the sudden onslaught that plagues their citizens. Experts from the CDC and WHO attempt to find a cure and to locate the origin of the outbreak but are hindered by problems as diverse as boundaries in their professional ethics, conspiracy bloggers inciting public revolt against the rule of law for their own profit, and the overall fear and hopelessness that drives people to extremes they would otherwise never consider, just to survive another day. The result is a carefully woven mosaic of various plot lines that never merge but end up making for an excellently rounded structure as a whole in terms of exploring the nature of the virus, its effects on global society and the race for ending its reign of terror. Though credit has to be given to Soderbergh and his team for keeping this narrative as close to reality as possible, both for chilling us to the bone and for the benefit of our education, it's hard to deny the film's occasional uneven pace and its constant need for overexplaining the more technical situations portrayed, even though it's tremendously helpful in understanding the motions of science in hazardous scenarios like these, and provides some always welcome intellectual uplifting of the audience in general. At times it feels a documentary would have better suited this topic (and no doubt some have). An all-star cast is brought on board to demonstrate how swiftly a lethal, worldwide viral outbreak makes an end to everyday life and in some instances, human values we claim to hold dear until circumstances prove us otherwise.

Though convincing performances are found throughout, in hindsight it would have been more apt to have these characters be played by less known talents to increase the level of realism Contagion aims for. Though the likes of Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jude Law are undoubtedly just as susceptible to nasty diseases as the rest of us (unless fortune really is a cure for every illness), their struggle against the horrible infliction in question doesn't feel as grounded in reality as it ought to because of the high level of internationally familiar faces and the lack of “normal people” in major roles throughout the whole. The movie's overall style is rather cold and detached, a tone many spectators would expect a scientifically accurate story to convey, while the human element is relegated to the background a little too much. Soderbergh focuses on the microcosm of things, so scenes of mass panic and rampant lawlessness are absent though they are referred to abundantly, which doesn't make the concerns addressed in this film feel as immediate and as serious as we are meant to experience them. Contagion is a fine attempt at explaining in a scientifically correct sense what very well could (and most likely would) transpire if it came down to a global pandemic of this magnitude – the death toll at the end of the film reaches 26 million people – but its reliance on letting science determine the course of the film doesn't make for as compelling and intense a drama as it should have been.

Dark Victory

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

Typical but classic 'weepie' (or 'women's film') from the late Thirties, a star vehicle for Bette Davis who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance but didn't win (no matter, since she was Oscar-nominated a whopping eleven times in total and took home two such trophies during her career). Davis portrays a young wealthy woman who enjoys life in a frivolous manner, drinking, smoking and sporting too much, until she is diagnosed with a terminal illness that will kill her within a year. Instead of crying over it (which is left to the audience), she chooses to concentrate on the important things in life, finds love with the doctor examining her and keeps her dignity until the very (bitter) end, thus going out in a 'dark victory' in her acceptance of the inevitable as she embraces her death instead of needlessly living in fear for the unavoidable for the remainder of her days. The final scenes in which she says goodbye to her new husband as he leaves for a business trip while she, unknown to him, is in the final stages of her physical collapse – in order for him to remember her as she wants him to – is a serious tearjerking moment like only the Thirties could provide; hence the genre nickname 'weepies'. Despite the emphatically tragic occurrences and strong performances making it feel compelling, the general level of melodrama is overly high for many (male) audience members, which is a reason films like these were mainly marketed to the female spectators. Co-starring Humprey Bogart in a pre-Casablanca role, not as a bad guy in this case.

Starring: Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart

Directed by Edmund Goulding

USA: Warner Bros., 1939