Gwyneth Paltrow: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Beth Emhoff - Contagion

The human race is decimated by a deadly flu virus and it's all started by of Gwyneth Paltrow. Talk about turning into the skid. Paltrow's hardly in Steven Soderbergh's ensemble germ thriller, which really works to her credit - she does dying well, but any more time spent with her bug-eyed patient zero could have got ridiculous. As it is, Beth is a solid motivator for Matt Damon's husband and a nice lead into the sprawling story, but the minor role is handled very well. Beth contracts the virus, flies home from Hong Kong and suddenly finds herself ill. It's not an arc with any depth, but having such a famous face in the role makes it impactful - it's hard to see the film working as well if every minor character wasn't an A-Lister.