Intelligent movie-making, whichever way you cut it...

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2001)

I don't understand why some people make a distinction between science-fiction and sci-fi. Still, whatever you want to call "Contact", it represents thoughtful, intelligent film-making.
Jodie Foster is perfect for the role of Ellie Arroway. The character is written as an intelligent, articulate and passionate woman, just as Ms Foster herself appears to be. Sure, that doesn't require much of an acting stretch, and I think I've accidentally hit on the reason I don't like Foster much as an actress, despite most of her films and performances being good. You never get the sense that she is stepping outside herself to portray the character, her persona is always there. Her best role in my opinion is one of her first, as Iris in "Taxi Driver", when nobody knew who she was and she couldn't trade off an established profile of herself, as she has done in much of her later work.
(SPOILERS)
Back to the film. "Contact" is intelligently written, with an engaging cast of supporting characters besides Foster. Creditable actors such as Tom Skerrit and James Woods lend their considerable nous to the project. One of my favourite scenes (and lines) in the film is when they receive a transmission of the Nuremburg rally as proof that they have made 'contact'. Someone asks: "What are they trying to say?"; one person offers that maybe it's just their way of saying "Hello", "Or seig heil, you're our kind of people..." inserts Woods' dour army general. Priceless.
The script also does a good job of making science seem pretty interesting, for those of us who've never looked at it that way before (like me) The reaction of the general population when they hear about the news is a nice touch (Foster riding into a carnival-like atmosphere with speakers blaring out "Purple people eater"), as are the cameos by various people, including ex Prez Bill Clinton. OK, they're not crucial in terms of plot development, but they do help to maintain the previous treatment of the subject matter as something that could really happen. In opposition to this is a movie like "Armageddon", which, while fun and constantly hinting that it's scenario is possible, goes for the cheap thrills and one-liners rather than the cerebral route. (On a side note, I'm consistently amazed at how much of a bashing that movie takes from you venerable IMDb users, lighten up, guys!)
What a shame, then, that all the hard work done in the first 2/3rds of the movie is almost undone by a contrived final third. Did the alien really have to take the form of her dead dad and spout off horribly sentimental platitudes? I could handle the vaguely moralising tone of the dialogue between young Ellie and her father at the beginning, because it seemed like a simple yet effective way of explaining why Ellie grew up to be such a forthright woman. Returning to the well again, however, is beyond the pale. It's an example of lazy scriptwriting to tie up any possible loose ends that I wouldn't have thought possible, given that otherwise the script is almost faultless. Hey, I LIKE loose ends sometimes, leave them alone!
This pretty major gripe still isn't enough to prevent the film achieving a high mark on my ratings system, though. An impressively intelligent Hollywood treatment of a topical subject that should provoke reflection in its audience and stands up well to repeated viewings. Will deserve to be recognised as a modern classic 20 years after its release.