Chaos and disaster and quite scary

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2015)

I saw this before (and after) seeing 28 Days Later. While Days was about some individual survivors, (and had lots of silly flaws), Weeks has two strong story lines. One is about the family. There is Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) at first hiding in a cottage while their children are safely in Spain on a school trip. The opening scene shows the dilemma that Don faces when threatened with attack. He panics, abandons Alice. Scary, how would I react?
28 weeks later, the US/UN army has come to try and rebuild Britain. There are plane-loads of new people coming in, including Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), who are Don and Alice's. When Andy bemoans that they don't even have a picture of their mother, they sneak out of the secure zone and get back to their old house. They get a photo and collect some personal things, then... surprise, Alice is sheltering there.
The army helicopters take them back to the medical centre, where Alice is scrubbed and a blood sample taken. Alas, she has the virus, but no symptoms, and so is immune and worthy of serious investigation. The army guys are real and likable (not like in Days). There are tender and intelligent scenes where Doyle (Jeremy Renner) shines. But they have to survive, and what ensues is awful.
Now the second theme of the movie takes hold. How does officialdom cope? Containment, isolation, extermination. Code Red. Ghastly.
We could think about the wider implications of the threats to civilization that an outbreak of Rage (the virus that causes it all), involve. Something like this. Scary.
Superb acting, great writing, but I'm not sure about the wisdom of using a lot of hand-held-camera shots - very hard to follow.