kate winslet plays me in a movie

SO - you know those silly icebreaker questions they ask at big meetings to get things going?  You know the ones like: “If you won a million dollars, what would you do with it?”  Or (even worse): “If you had to pick an animal to represent your personality, what kind would it be?”

I usually try to make myself scarce and strategically place myself at the coffee/tea station or excuse myself to take that super urgent bogus blackberry call (come on, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about) during your average icebreaker activity.  This is mostly because it’s just ‘too much information’ from my co-workers, and/or because I can’t think of an answer that is witty enough or (let’s face it) appropriate to share with co-workers.  Then there was the time I told a whole meeting room of people that I dig disco music during a ‘tell your colleagues something they might not know about you’ icebreaker.  This answer (regrettably) turned out to be too much information for them.

Fortunately, there is one icebreaker question for which I have a totally appropriate answer for.  And that is: “If you could choose any star to play you in a movie about your life, who would you choose?”  If we put aside the fact that no one is ever going to make a movie about my life, my answer is:  Kate Winslet.

I LOVE Kate Winslet.  And I don’t really know why.  I think she is a tremendously talented actor.  I like the mix of films and projects she’s taken on.  And although the ‘Titanic years’ were a bit rocky for everyone, I liked the acting route she took following that box-office success.  Instead of jumping on the blockbuster bandwagon (which would have totally sucked) and accepting boring part after boring part, Kate pursued a range of film, and had totally won me over by the time Clementine (in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) came along.  And did you read Revolutionary Road?  Only a talented actor could take the role of April Wheeler to the screen and bring out in the viewer the complex mix of feelings evoked by the character in the book:  pity, hatred, and sympathy (all at the same time).

And now?  Contagion.

'Gwyneth Paltrow is dead?! Don't start the autopsy without me!'

Fact:  in the movie Contagion, Kate Winslet plays Dr. Erin Mears, an Officer of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) from the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC).  Early in the film Dr. Mears is deployed to investigate the circumstance and risk factors surrounding the index case and the people this case infected.  While I am not an EIS Officer, what Kate plays out in the movie (fairly accurately, I’d say) is the routine work of epidemiologists who investigate the origin of outbreaks and novel disease that includes identifying the extent of the problem, the number of people affected, as well as the common symptoms they may share. And then once that’s identified, epidemiologists then go on to work on limiting exposure and interrupting transmission (where possible) to stop the epidemic.

Maybe it was because my expectations for this movie was so low going in, or because Outbreak was so bad, or because I saw Contagion with a group of fellow epidemiology colleagues, but I really liked it.  I don’t usually go for fear mongering movies (and make no mistake, this movie was all that), but I could see quite a bit of my own work environment in the movie, and this circumstance was brought out in a droll and humorous manner.  The epidemiologist/CDC/health professional movie characters were portrayed in the unsentimental ‘get on with it’ manner in which they get their work done during outbreaks.  And I did snicker as these characters endured dumb questions from Homeland Security (can we just put something in the water to stop this?!) or accusations from policy wonks who just cared mostly about their bottom budget line (is this coming out of my budget or your budget?).  But let’s face it:  I was probably just enamoured by the fact that Kate Winslet was playing moi.

Kate explains the basic reproduction number. Totally hot!

There has been much written about Contagion.  You will find articles on how accurately the movie portrays ‘real-life disease detectives’ (like me), and good reviews published in the New Yorker and the Globe and Mail.  But you honestly won’t need to read any of these reviews after you read my friend (and fellow epidemiologist) Andrea’s pithy review:

Contagion in a nutshell – Gwyneth Paltrow’s smug face is responsible for making millions of people ill (what’s new?), Jude Law is a wanker (again, what’s new), and if its viral, kills and replicates in caged animals it can only come from China. Oh, but epidemiologists do save the day (even if they are EIS officers

Awesome!

So now that Kate Winslet plays me in a movie, I think that’s the end of my icebreaker participation.  Which means you’ll see more of me over at the coffee/tea station figuring out exactly how many people have coughed on the danish and deciding if it’s safe to eat!