Would have worked more as a TV series since it had a lot to tell even with the bloated runtime

Rating: 7/10 (13 October 2012)

An interesting but uneven psychological science fiction that deals with different perspectives on existence of life outside Earth as well as what will be the reaction if a contact actually happens. Only problem is that it takes itself too seriously and tries too long to present a justification for everything that happens in the movie.
Eleanor (Jodie Foster) has been fascinated about long distance communication and life outside earth from a very young age partly influenced by her father (David Morse). She focuses her studies and career towards this and chances on a communication from an unknown source. This communication after a lot of research is understood to be a design for building a spaceship to reach them.
Jodie Foster as usual gives her best, but what sets the tone in the movie is Jena Malone's innocent passion which makes us understand what the older Eleanor does what she does. The intermittent politics, romance, science fiction - all take up a lot of runtime leaving too many things to conclude hastily. It could have worked a lot better as a mini-series like Taken or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I have admired a lot of Robert Zemeckis films where most of them has a naughty child-like passion and an intelligent main plot to them. Climax draws comparisons with the superior 2001: A Space Odyssey but still Contact does enough to hold its ground.
Would have worked more as a TV series since it had a lot to tell even with the bloated runtime