CONTACT (1997)
A review by Chris Webb 7/31/97
Cast: Jodie Foster (Ellie Arroway), Matthew McConaughey (Palmer
Joss), James Woods (Michael Kitz), John Hurt (S.R. Hadden)
Tom Skerritt (David Drumlin), Angela Bassett (Rachel
Constantine), Jake Busey (Joseph), Jena Malone (Young
Ellie), Rob Lowe (Richard Rank). Directed by Robert
Zemeckis.
Robert Zemeckis could easily separate himself from Forrest Gump. After all, that movie is three years in the past. By now, he should realize that not every movie he touches needs to have the same elements. Unfortunately, he doesn't.
The technical wonder that was Gump invades some scenes of Contact, and they are unwelcome. Unwelcome to the eye and apparently to the man in those scenes, Bill Clinton. What we have here is similar to Gumps meeting with President Kennedy, where characters are superimposed onscreen during a presidential speech that makes the archived footage seem to be a part of the movie. Here we find two mistakes: one in motive, one in the technical uses of the President. By now, we are aware that Zemeckis can do this sort of thing, and it has swerved into an annoying pattern. Also, we can tell that the President did not make his speech indoors as sunlight glistens off his gray hair.
My other complaint with Zemeckis' handling of this film is the gooey sentimentality to which we are subjected early on. We discover how the main character, Ellie Arroway (Foster), has become the way she is through a series of flashbacks. Groans were apparent during these scenes and should have been handled differently. Nonetheless, Contact survives the heavy hand of Robert Zemeckis, and succeeds.
The story has been in the making for seventeen years, the brainchild of super-astronomer Carl Sagan, who died last year of cancer. Pushed by a fascination with the prospects of alien life, Sagan turned Contact into a novel as production hit snags endlessly. Translated to film, the effort is seamless.
Ellie is a scientist who feels that there is someone out there trying to communicate. Like the efforts to make the movie, Ellie hits bumps in her search for intelligent life as funding keeps disappearing from her projects. Behind the sabotages is David Drumlin (Skerritt), a good old boy who has paid his dues and seeks the fame for himself. However, just as the sheet is pulled from beneath her, Ellie finds a way to keep listening for signals, and one evening one appears from the star cluster of Vega, and it packs a punch.
In a series of wrenching scenes, we watch as Drumlin successfully pulls the project away from Ellie. The project consists of building an aptly named "machine" to launch someone to Vega to meeet the aliens. Soon enough the government takes over, led by skeptical Michael Kitz (Woods). Woods is once again brilliant as the sarcastic wit who has no reason to believe that anything here is sensible. These, however, are the mere bones of the film.
Palmer Joss (McConaughey) is a Christian leader who plants the issue of God into the minds of the viewers and actors. The science versus religion debate emerges and erupts. As the machine is being built, religious and science fanatics line up along NASAs property to protest or support the mission. Meanwhile, Drumlin and Arroway vie for the job to meet the Vegans. Drumlin plays dirty to attain the position, while Arroway speaks from her heart during sessions.
However, after a tragedy strikes, Ellie is allowed to run the mission. She is guided by the Carl Sagan-as-billionaire, S.R. Hadden (Hurt), who helps her reach her goal, the stars. Amazing are the wormhole effects of her entering different atmospheres and galaxies, as well as the Vegan land itself. While on Vega, her meeting must remain a surprise. Zemeckis does have a tocuh of flare with these scenes, and could have used more of them.
Angela Bassett deserved more scenes, and comes up as the wasted talent. Casting Rob Lowe as the conservative and Jake Busey as a lunatic were smart decisions.
I believe that Face/Off is the best film we've been given this summer, but Contact is Academy-friendly. It is almost assured that Foster will gain a nomination, and Skerritt, in his icy and calculating performance, deserves consideration. Zemeckis almost blows it, but with the fascination behind Contact, even he could reap the benefits of an overall good movie.
My Grade: B+/A-
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