Review of Contact (1997) by Josh G — 07 Mar 2010

I decided that I needed to read Carl Sagan's book Contact which either inspired this film or was inspired by it. As it turns out, that was a bad choice. We've all heard the saying "the book was better", right? Well, this time the book was billions and billions of times better.

I didn't think that there was any way that the movie could match the book, but I was willing to give it a shot anyway. The first mistake that the movie makes it cutting out dozens of characters who were very important in the novel. Of course I understand that movies are different and have to streamline the plot somewhat, but a lot of the drama was lost in putting pretty much all of the focus on Dr. Arroway (Foster).

The theme of the book can be stated in one line which has become one of Sagan's most famous quotes: "For small beings such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love." He's talking about the emptiness of space, and how important human relationships are. That theme is not explored at all in the movie; in fact, I'm not sure whether there is a theme at work here. Insztead, the movie feels as though it is just going through the motions of most of the plot trying to get to the climax. The few characters who remain from the book are flattened into one-dimensional sketches of themselves. Take Dr. Drumlin, for instance. In the book, he was once Arroway's mentor, but always criticizes her work with SETI. Some of his actions, though, make it clear that he is not Ellie's enemy, as he shows some real compassion toward her. In the movie, he's just evil.

But perhaps the worst bastardization comes in the form of Palmer Joss (McConaughey). The book's Joss is a preacher who came to Christianity after years of scientific work because he had a near-death experience. He was a very religious man, but believed that the universe was as large as it is and as old as it is... he was even open to the possibility of aliens. This is in contrast to the much more conservative Reverend Rankin, who was practically a young-earth creationist. In the movie, we have... Matthew McConaughey. Do I need to say more? He's shirtless whenever possible, and the character here is some sort of hippie who has no problems with sleeping with girls he just met, but still considers himself religious because he believes in, you know, like a higher power or something. We cut through time and he becomes extremely influential. How on earth did this loser gain any notoriety? No explanation is offered.

The book is 400+ pages long, and a lot of the story is about the discovery of a coded message from near the Vega star system. Lots of academic debates ensue over how an alien civilization could have grown there, since the star system isn't old enough to have birthed an intelligent race. There's arguments over how to interpret the data, detailed descriptions of scientific notions. Here, it's almost they almost instantaneously decide that the message is a design for a machine after coming across it. The way that they can just hook up a television set to a radar system and get a clear image is laughable.

I'll admit that there are a few interesting images captured of director Robert Zemeckis and his team, but the heart of Contact is not there. If you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all. This is a spineless movie; it flops around and eventually gets to the end, but it's hard to see any worth in it after the majesty of the novel. I can't pretend to have been an unbiased observer here.