See...Screwed Again!

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2017)

What a cool idea for a movie: blending the physical with the metaphysical, science with faith! That's the intriguing basis of this film, and it is done well in so many ways.
What it could have been called, however, is "See...Screwed Again!" because of the ubiquity of scenes of Jodie Foster, the most stridently sincere and undervalued person on Earth, getting cigarettes put out on her forehead at cocktail parties, or having someone stuffing a sock in her mouth at a meeting. ("They're doing these things just because I'm a girl!" is written all over her face.) OK, that cigarette thing and all didn't really happen, but they virtually did: Jodie gets jazzed about S.E.T.I., so what occurs? She's pulled from the project. Her conveyed reaction: "See...screwed again!" When the funds for the antennas in South America dry up, JF's take: "See...screwed again!" She gets turned down for money by the bigwigs: "See..screwed again!" Her semi-priest boyfriend nixes her chance to go on the mystery trip: Take it, Jodie: "See...screwed again!" Right, right, right...she doesn't say those words, BUT that is the perpetual demeanor of this character! After a while you feel wrung out by virtue of witnessing all the injustice foisted upon her...just because she's a girl!
"Contact" is very engaging and heart-warming, provided you ignore the draining anxiety of Jodie. It would have received an 8 but for her. If she reads this, no doubt, even her neighbors will be able to hear: "See...screwed again!"