Contact

Contact

Thinking Person's Sci-Fi For the Silly Season

(This review originally appeared in the July 10-16, 1997 Long Island Voice.)

Reviewed by Beth Hannan Rimmels

At the risk of turning off all you action fans, I have to say that Contact is one of the smartest science fiction movies I’ve seen in a long time. Don’t get me wrong. I love science fiction/action films like the Terminator or Star Wars series and you know, I presume, how much I liked Men in Black. But Contact is more in the vein of Day the Earth Stood Still in that it’s both a gripping story and an examination of how we as a species would behave if faced with proof that we are not alone.

Don’t let any of that mislead you into thinking that Contact is the science fiction equivalent of a Merchant-Ivory production. Robert Zemeckis is too good a storyteller for this to be a dry examination of the human condition. As he’s proven time and again with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forest Gump and others, he can deftly mix humor and drama while keeping your eyes pinned to the screen.

Jodie Foster heads the star-studded cast (a term that’s often used loosely but is legitimate here) as Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer working on the SETI project (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, a real-life project that lost funding a few years ago). When the government pulls the plug in favor of more "practical" research (and before you scoff, remember that Christopher Columbus faced similar arguments), Ellie and her coworkers get private funding to continue. Even that is in trouble when the government decides to severe their time-lease agreement due to bad publicity. Then "it" arrives. Not a flying saucer but a signal from outer space that quickly proves not to be a fluke and then slowly proves to contain much more information than they thought.

The real fight starts then. Everyone wants to control the project, get their piece of the action and control the agenda. Zemeckis and screenwriters James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg deserve credit for making the fight between governments and agencies and the dispute over who goes (even though you know it will be Ellie) as compelling as the prospect of what they will find. Credit also goes to the superb supporting cast, which includes James Woods, Angela Bassett and Tom Skerrit.

Foster, as usual, is excellent. The raw intelligence she conveys in interviews meshes perfectly with the character. She also works well opposite the charismatic Matthew McConaughey who represents the true spiritual conscience of the film. Both characters are so passionate about searching for the truth that you’ll root for both.

My one hesitation walking into Contact was how they would handle the actual contact. If the film ended there, it would be a rip off. If Ellie did reach the aliens, wouldn’t that lead to several more hours of film? I shouldn’t have been concerned. The film has an elegant, effective solution that satisfies.

Contact is definitely entertaining, but if you’re willing to think rather than just letting it wash over you, you won’t be disappointed. It raises interesting questions about science vs. religion and science in the public interest vs. science for profit. No side is completely right or wrong. The debate between the points is the best part.

My only real quibble is over Zemeckis using the technique he perfected in Forrest Gump for intercutting old footage with new. Here he uses it to put Bill Clinton into several scenes. Technically, it’s well done, but I personally found it distracting. I kept trying to figure out which real speeches they used to simulate the scenes.

Contact is an excellent film that could get lost int he summer movie shuffle, but it’s a film built for the long run, one that will only grow in reputation with time.