A beautiful story of discovery and self-discovery

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2011)

"Contact" is a beautiful story, about how a young astronomer is driven by her own painful past to embark on a voyage of discovery: Discovery about the universe, and discovery about herself.
The astronomer, Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, was always fascinated--even driven--to make contact with beings in the universe, ever since as a young child she desperately tried--without success--to contact the spirits of her own beloved but recently deceased parents via a ham radio set. Ever since, she's wanted to know just who or what is out there. She begs for research funds and time slots on radio telescopes, hoping to detect some message from space.
She meets a young religious leader, Palmer Joss, who has wondered about the same questions. He found his answers in God; while Ellie, dissatisfied with that, keeps looking for scientific answers. They have a close but questioning relationship, symbolizing how scientific cosmology and religion may be driven by similar impulses but come up with different answers.
Suddenly an alien message from space is received on Ellie's radio telescopes. Washington DC tasks Ellie with the job of decoding the message. That starts Ellie on a path of learning and discovery of which she could never have dreamed. What happens to her, and what she finds, certainly made me think, long after the movie had concluded.
Many have compared "Contact" to "2001: A Space Odyssey." But the big difference is the personal treatment in "Contact." In "2001," it was all about the voyage of discovery of the human race; the characters were flat and one-dimensional. In "Contact," how scientific discovery changes Ellie Arroway personally, is just as important.
The only significant gripe I have with this movie is the Forrest Gump-like splicing of actual footage of President Clinton and some other celebrities of the 1990s into some of the scenes. Sagan's novel, on which the movie is based, had a totally fictional U.S. President to make the executive decisions. The movie would have been better that way; because now that Clinton has been out of office for 11 years, the movie wouldn't appear a bit dated.
But if you can look past that one flaw, the rest of the movie is definitely well worth watching. And its message is worth pondering.