The Best of 1997

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 1999)

I was actually bribed into watching Contact. I was at my friend's house, and she wanted to watch her latest purchase from Blockbuster, and I wanted to watch Alice in Wonderland again. After agreeing to watch her three-dollar-rental-with-a-free-bag-of-pop-corn with the popcorn on *my* side of the couch, I became spellbound by the extaordinary story written by Carl Sagan. Admittedly, I love Sci-Fi. I watch the X-Files every Sunday night, and I can't get enough out of Douglas Adam's writing. But Contact is not just a science fiction flick. There's so much more to the movie. It is about one scientist's hurtles with life trying to find extra terrestrial intelligence and the problems and decisions she must make in order to achieve Contact with other life. Jodie Foster is at her best as the determined scientist Ellenore Arroway. Her love interest, Joss Palmer (Mathew McConaughey) beings out the other side of Ellie that doesn't involve searching for "little green men". Robert Zemeckis' work is beautifully done and touching, especially the scene in which young Ellenore's father dies. Instead of making it a sappy death scene that forces you to cry, Jena Malone (playing Young Ellie) show's the devestated girl with superb acting that will move you. Angela Bassett plays the President's right hand (wo)man sharp, intelligent, and down to earth. David Drumlin, Ellenore's enemy, is played viciously by a deliciously sinister Tom Skerrit.
My only dissapointment in this film is that it ended to soon (hardly, it actually runs a little long but the plot is so thick and detailed the time goes by quickly). No sooner did I finish the last of my friend's free popcorn did I say "This is my favorite movie." And it is. Not only that, but it has also become my favorite book (by Carl Sagan).