The Contact light is ON

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2003)

"Contact" is what happens to scientist Ellie as she goes through an experience that leaves her in the same boat as her suitor Palmer Joss.
"Did you love your Father, " Joss asks her. Of course. "Prove it." Joss has written a book promoting the idea that science has not answered the question of meaning, while stripping the world of "cherished beliefs". Ellie is the scientist who wants empirical proofs -- not wanting to settle for the shifting sands of "belief" and "faith".
The result is a drama that tests the foundations of both approaches to the big questions. There are no answers. The government (as in "Temple of Doom") hides the only real empirical evidence it spent BILLIONS and BILLIONS to find.
"Contact" treats Ellie sweetly and supportively throughout. That she is a "girl" and in science would have seemed pretty radical at one time. Not any more. Are there some kinds of experiences in space that "The Right Stuff" can't deal with? Astronauts had religious experiences during flights that were largely hushed up. Maybe the experiences were just too private. Maybe all important experiences are private.
Joss doesn't characterize science fairly. "The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research, " Albert Einstein said. "Contact" goes part of the way to making that clearer. See it billions and billions of times.