Review of Contact (1997) by Delta_Assault — 27 Sep 2011

On an impulse, I went and rewatched Contact, the 1997 film starring Jodie Foster. Man, what a great **** movie. Zemeckis did a lot of good work with Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future, and Forrest Gump, but Contact seems a bit more serious and mature, while still retaining that special magic that made those previous films successful.

As the star of the film, Jodie Foster was amazing as Dr. Arroway. Maybe this is going out on a limb here, but I think she should've been nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Unlike a lot of females in big Hollywood movies, the best quality of her character is how driven and intelligent she is, instead of how big her boobs are. And really, how many times have we had a main female lead in a big blockbuster spectacle? Outside of Contact, there's... well, the Tomb Raider films... and Elektra... and Catwoman. It's just sad when you contrast any of those with Contact, isn't it? Is there anything about Lara Croft that's intellectual? She's treated solely as a sex object, right? And that is something that never ever happens with Arroway. Don't get me wrong, Jodie Foster is absolutely gorgeous in this film and looks breath-taking in many scenes, absolutely, but... she never becomes a sex object, she is always shown as a highly capable scientist and intellectual, first and foremost. This is so refreshing and it's a shame that it continues to be such a rarity in Hollywood today.

In a lot of films, you also run the risk of an intelligent and highly motivated and aggressive female character being seen by the audience as... well, frankly, as a **** But that never ever comes close to happening in Contact. Arroway is simply this incredibly intelligent, yet dynamic and interesting character, who you empathize with and want to see succeed, and no small part of that is due to Foster's electrifying performance. When Palmer Joss falls for her and decides to vote against her because he doesn't want to lose her, we as the audience are right there with him because we've all fallen for her as well. I actually thought everyone in the cast did a great job. Matthew McConaughey usually just phones it in on those rom coms he tends to do these days, but I thought he was really good as Joss, the religious love interest. I totally bought their romance. Lot of chemistry there between them.

Going back down memory lane, I read the novel back... in high school. Right after I watched the film for the first time, in fact. So, it's all a bit hazy, but I thought the book was really good as well. Generally quite similar to the film, but the ending is noticeably different. Both the film and the novel have the same central theme, which is a debate between religion and science. Instead of building one up while tearing the other down, as a lot of films are wont to do in this arena, the film takes us between the positions of one and the other until eventually, the accommodation we arrive at in the end is both thoughtful, respectful, and nuanced.

The ending of the novel has the alien giving Arroway information on a signature of sorts for a universal creator. So she goes back, gets on this big supercomputer that calculates pi, and finds that after a really long time, the seemingly random numbers of pi actually form a pattern, which translates into a visual image of a circle. So that's the proof that God exists, because he planted this signature into pi. You can kinda see why they didn't go with this ending for the film. A scientist at a computer, watching a bunch of numbers being crunched is... not particularly cinematic.

Oh, and as far as the ending goes, with the alien being her father... hey, I thought the wormhole ride was enough of a payoff, visually. That was already pretty mindblowing, with all the special effects, so I didn't really care that we didn't see any wacky alien lifeforms. And they explained it well enough in the story. I think the weakest storypoint is actually how at the end, they just keep grilling her and not believing her story, when all they had to do was send another person through.

In a lot of ways, I find Contact very similar to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, except I think it succeeds where 2001 failed. There's the wonder and majesty of the universe, and it poses the same questions; who are we, why are we here, where are we going as a species... but unlike 2001, it's actually got interesting and engaging characters, a great narrative, a far better wormhole sequence, and really tight pacing throughout. 2001 is an emotionally cold film, yet I find just the opposite with Contact. There's so much emotion and richness to the main character, especially with her connection with her father, which we gradually find out with flashbacks.