Ellie Arroway is a radio astronomer that's taken the professionally dangerous specialisation of searching for extraterrestrial life. She's been interested in radio since learning about her father's ham radio as a child. Her old teacher David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), as gruff as he is, thinks she should change to a more respectable field within radio astronomy. When she refuses, he manages to get the funding for her project pulled.
She manages to find funding from the enigmatic mega-rich recluse S.R. Hadden (John Hurt) and continues the search. Later, she's given notice that this search is to be cancelled, but not before she finds a signal from an extra-terrestrial civilisation. The U.S. Government, in the guise of Micheal Kitz (James Woods) moves right in and tries to limit the information leaking out to the public.
Despite all the interference, they discover that there's a television signal in the transmission and there are coded plans that seem to be for some sort of machine. Should they build it? It clearly shows that there's a seat for someone inside. Of course it's built, but what will it do when activated?
I haven't revealed any more than the trailer or television commercials but I think they even have gone a bit far. I don't even know where to begin this review because there's so much I want to say.
Firstly the story. It's a faithful rendering of Carl Sagan's 1985 best-selling novel Contact. Of course, books change in their translation to the screen and this one is no exception. I think that the story is very strong and can easily hold the interested viewer for the two-and-a-half hour length of this film. The shares the qualities of the best science fiction. That is, the story is about people rather than effects or gadgets, and it always makes you re-examine things that you normally accept without thought. The film pays off in spades in both of these departments.
Jodie Foster has to have been the perfect choice to play Ellie. She's a very strong character, but has weaknesses that Foster made the audience believe. Every film I've seen Foster in has increased my respect for her work and Contact has probably best displayed her flexibility as an actress to date. The film was so much about Ellie, that very few other characters had major roles. Notably though, most other characters without bit-parts were given opportunities to show some development or different sides. I rarely got the impression that they were one-dimensional cutouts.
The effects were excellent, but as I mentioned earlier, they serve only to support the story. If you're expecting Independence Day, you'll get the same quality effects, but they are attached to a very different type of film. Particularly notable were the effects during the first test of the machine. I distinctly recall that the whole theatre was completely silent.
And that wasn't the only time that the film had the crowd completely in its thrall. But make no mistake, this isn't a film for everyone. If you're looking for entertainment to be handed to you pre-digested, you're in the wrong theatre. This is a film that requires you to think and pay attention. Like any good piece of art, the onus is as much on the viewer as it is on the artist and every viewer will take something different away from it. I suspect that it shares that quality with 2001: A Space Odyssey but it's not nearly as abstract. It's not an ID4 type of film and for that reason, I very much doubt that it will be a runaway success. People seem not to want to give anything to be entertained, despite the rewards. But because of that, this film will be remembered for a very long time after ID4 is forgotten.
I understand that Sagan was intimately involved with the film in an effort to keep it true to the spirit of his work and to make sure that the science was right. There he has succeeded brilliantly. No where will you find that the filmmaker has bent the laws of physics for the purposes of the story. How refreshing. And indeed that should never be necessary if it's taken into account right from the start. Contact is one of the few examples of hard SF that's ever made it to the screen intact. And that attention to detail must've been contagious because it appears everywhere in the film. The effect is so convincingly complete, that it's easy to forget you're watching a completely fictional film.
Sadly, Sagan died during the production and never got to see the finished product. He's given a touching tribute at the end with all the love and respect he so richly deserved. I thought to myself that dedication was a nice offering to his memory, but realised the whole film is largely a gift from him to us. And what a gift.
Contact is easily the best science fiction film in a decade but it transcends what Hollywood means when it says science fiction. It's a story about humanity, not aliens. Don't under any circumstances miss this one.
*****
Review ©1997 Rick Pali
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