PERFECT SENSE (2011)

Despite not enjoying the trailer for Steven Soderberg's CONTAGION, something about PERFECT SENSE draws me. The end-of-the-world scenario is a favorite for filmmakers these days, and I will be the first to admit that some of my favorite movies are about the collapse of civilization (CHILDREN OF MEN, BLADE RUNNER etc.), but CONTAGION just appears to be a tired story. That being said I haven't seen it yet and have read favorable things. But if one were to go solely by their respective trailers, I think PERFECT SENSE is the more appealing. Maybe it is the piano and violin score, the actors (I'm sorry CONTAGION, but Gwyneth Paltrow, can you please just go away), or the gentle cinematography, but PERFECT SENSE appears to be a movie that I would like to watch more. While CONTAGION is a film about the panic of disease, a sort of kicking-and-screaming descent into chaos, PERFECT SENSE accepts its fate and grasps onto what is important in times of desperation: love, human contact, family, friends. Sure, people freak out, panic, get drunk, trash stuff, but those are probably fairly typical reactions to what someone must go through when confronted with their fate. I guess what I am trying to say is that in a film that is bound to be rife with emotion and fear and panic, I choose the one that embraces it quietly. They both probably have the same ending, so why not get there with a little grace.