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Contact Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 51 Reviews)

Jodie is great as always, but....
Jody Foster is a wonderful actress and in the film she shines. Too bad there weren't some other actors in the film that could arise to her level of excellence. Her character is a person of intelligence, sensitivity, imagination......What was she doing hanging out with the ex-priest...Matthew what's his name. His character is a person of no substance...very surfacey kind of guy. Jody's character is a mature human being; Matthew plays an angst ridden teenager.
Little too much of 2001: A Space Odyssey for my taste.

Overrated
Contact is one of those movies were you have to share your opinion with friends, not as much for the alien factor, but the always intriguing Science vs. Religion debate that entails.
The "religious" elements of the story were just plain dumb. Does anyone recall there being a belief test for astronauts before?

There are mysteries in the world which are completely unfathomable to me. And one of them is why anyone can consider this film to be any good at all.
It is true that it had a promising start, with the first alien signal being detected by scientists; but from that point on, it goes downhill at the speed of light. Apparently, it is supposed to be a realistic hypothesis on how contact with an alien civilization could take place. But for me the story is completely unbelievable, and so full of holes that they are too many to list them all... I don't believe NASA would ever handle things the way they do in the film, I don't believe the church, let alone some neo-hippy preacher, would have squat to say in how things were handled, I don't believe a terrorist could ever get that easily to the very centre of the most expensive and important structure ever built by mankind, I don't believe some rich guy could set up a secret spaceship orbiting the earth aside from the powers that be, just like that, I don't believe NASA would be so keen to discredit the tale of their chosen ambassador, especially having proof (the hours of blank tape) that there was some truth in it, and I do not believe aliens would show up in a virtual beach with the face and voice of some poor girl's dead daddy. It is all so ridiculously contrived and movie-like that I simply cannot understand the general public's perception that all of this is "realistic", "profound" or "brainy"


Contact (1997)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, James Woods, Angela Bassett, John Hurt, David Morse, William Fichtner, Geoffrey Blake, Sami Chester, Timothy McNeil.
Running Time: 153 minutes
Rated PG for some intense action, mild language and a scene of sensuality.

All of the greatest work by the greatest scientists has been done while they were very young, when they were stupid enough to believe that two-plus-two-equals-five, and pursued it instead of listening to all of those who were much older and wiser who said Don't Waste Your Time. Einstein, it has been said, asked all of his important questions before the age of twenty-five, then spent the rest of his life working on them. "Contact", directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump", "Back to the Future"), is the story of a young scientist, Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), who like Einstein and all the greats before her, has been asking questions and seeking answers since she was very young. And now, as a member of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) team, she is able to pursue her obsession with the mysteries of the galaxies and the infinite universe that surrounds us. Her job is to sweep the skies, using the most sophisticated equipment available, for a signal from deepest space. It may be her job, but for Ellie it's a labor of love, for she is convinced that there is something, or someone, out there somewhere, because otherwise, she reasons, what a terrible waste of space it would be. Ellie may be a dreamer, but she knows in her heart that it is the dreamers who over the years have been responsible for making us evolve, making us learn and grow because they are the ones who take insane, foolish ideas and pursue them. And to her, two-plus-two will always be five.

Ellie loves her job and believes in what she is doing, but it's been a struggle over the years, as she and others have had to constantly fight for the funding necessary to keep the project alive, begging for dollars from short-sighted, unimaginative people with vision that goes only as far as the bottom line of their budget book. It's been a tough row to hoe, and she's had to swallow a lot of pride over the years, but then one day it all pays off, when in one magic moment she hears what she's been waiting for all her life: A signal from a distant end of the galaxy-- someone attempting to communicate, to make contact, with the people of the Earth. Ellie and her team soon realize that, whomever it is, they are using the universal language of prime numbers in their attempts at making contact; and when Ellie deciphers the code, she discovers something monumental in the bargain. But it's a message of global importance, something much bigger than she and her team alone, and she soon find herself fighting to remain a part of the drama that is only beginning to unfold-- the first interaction between human beings and an alien life form. And it's only the beginning of the adventure and the wondrous places this film is about to take you.

Jodie Foster gives a performance here that demonstrates what a gifted, talented actor she is. Her Ellie is convincing and believable, and someone to whom you can genuinely relate, no matter who you are or where you're from, because there is something universal in Ellie's passion and longing to discover the truth and to see beyond the veil of our limited mortal capacities. There's a strength to Ellie, born of a combination of intelligence and innocence, as well as tenacity and faith, and Foster manifests all of these complexities of her character beautifully, with a performance that should've landed her an Oscar nomination. In this role, she is simply as good as it gets. The supporting cast includes David Morse (Ted Arroway), Matthew McConaughey (Palmer), Geoffrey Blake (Fisher), William Fichtner (Kent), Tom Skerritt (David), James Woods (Kitz) and Angela Bassett (Rachel). Zemeckis did a brilliant job of bringing this film to fruition, especially in the way he allowed Foster the time to really develop her character, by giving her that extra moment at just the right time that ultimately meant so much in the final analysis. Too often it's those few minutes that wind up on the cutting room floor that make the difference between a good film and an exceptional one; and between Zemeckis and Foster, they took it to the edge by taking some chances to realize that combined vision, which in the end made this a great film. Thoroughly engrossing and entertaining, `Contact' will transport you to places you can only imagine, and it's all done with style and in a way that makes this a truly memorable cinematic journey. It's what the magic of the movies is all about.

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