journey to the unknown

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2006)

Since she was a young girl, Ellie Arroway has been obsessed with space and its unknown inhabitants. She has been meet with trouble for receive grants into her research of life beyond our realm of the galaxy. When her grant is running out and all look hopeless, a message from space arrives. The message is a pulsating noise in mathematical form, carrying information. On the deciphering this, Ellie and her team discover that the information are blue prints, to build a machine. The machine itself is a transportation mechanism, which they believe will take them to the machines maker and proof of intelligent lifeforms.
Contact is a wonderful exploration of other life forms and the ramifications to this discovery. The realms of science and religion cross paths here, and they both have a show down. There are many themes explored in Contact; the destruction or re-enforcement of the higher being - God, if there is other life are they benign or malevolent, the religious undertones of faith and the search for truth. While the religious and scientific aspect do collide, they are neither condoned nor called irrelevant. Both hold relevant questions, while they don't have answer, they can't be discredited.
Contact is surrounded in that mysterious unknown sense; very reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odessy. Both venture into the realm of intelligent life forms with unknown actions; are they here to help or bring our doom. While 2001 was more abstract and surreal, Contact hits hard with the science and religious side, yet still leaves room for interpretation; you are asked to make your decision.
From the moment she appears on screen, Jodie Foster has that commanding presence. What makes this film believable is from Foster, you can see it in her eyes, delivering another strong performance. Matthew McConaughey brings one of his best performances as Palmer Joss, who can't relinquish his religious beliefs in search of higher beings. While the rest of the cast; Michael Chaban, James Woods, William Fichtner and Tom Skerritt don't give outstanding performances, Contact doesn't rely on them, as the story does circle around Ellie and Palmer, and Foster and McConaughey do hold the story strongly on their shoulders.
Contact is a wonderful exploration into the heart of the unknown and the possibility of intelligent life forms, that space does hold tightly a secret.