Retrospective: Contact (1997)
By Eugene Z. Xia
This is a 3 star film. I am beginning to feel the power of Hollywood and understand why its films are so successful around the world. Much of it is formula writing, yet it all works so well. When Arroway first heard the pining (very loud in the background) of the signal from Vega, the film's tempo went into high gears and I really felt the excitement. While my heart was pounding rapidly and cheering her on, a very distant and annoying part of my brain kept telling me: Here comes Hollywood "adrenaline formula 22". Then there is also the Spielberg "magic wonder ET formula" complete with sappy tear jerking yet completely harmless music. Foster did a very good job and so did the girl who played the young Arroway, but the rest are stereotypical--the paranoid government fonctionaires, your typical run of the mill villains who get their just dessert and the Raph Reed character carefully balanced by the spiritual boyfriend (but would you want to buy a used car from this guy?).
Sometimes this sort of formula writing can be quite vicious. I remember the first time I watched Kieslowski's Blue. When Julie locked herself out at night, my automatic reaction was, "Oh oh, she is going to get attacked by the hoodlums". When that didn't happen, I realized that in the real world, most people don't get attacked when they are locked out of their apartments. That was when I realized that I had watched too many Hollywood films.
At the same time, in my opinion, the most effective sequence is the one when Arroway stood in the control room watching the on going test process completely helpless and useless being reduced to a mere decoration.
Much of the dialogue about science and religion offers no more insight than the endless and tiresome debates that have been going on among college freshmen and the film would have been better off without it. When one strips away all this juvenile nonsense, one is left with a story of a woman obsessed with her childhood grief and refuses to grow up. Sort of like an adult version of Ponette.
The ending is definitely a religious one (Hollywood can't really afford to alienate 90% of the population). After delivering a speech of faith, Arroway walks out of the Capital and found herself the next messiah or at least the next great prophet.
Despite my somewhat harsh critique above, I highly recommend the film. Contrary to what you have heard, it is not a thinking person's movie although I will stop short of telling you to check your brain at the door. It offers you great entertainment while you are in the theater, but isn't terribly deep upon reflexion.
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