Loooooong and Fizzled

Rating: 3/10 (1 October 2005)

When my husband flipped "Contact" on last night, I asked, "Have we seen this before?"
He said that we had, but at first it didn't ring any bells for me. Then, suddenly, they started resounding.
"Ummm, doesn't this have a really rotten ending?" I asked, about 45 minutes into the movie.
He couldn't remember, but as we meandered painfully through this long, drawn-out, stereo-typical behemoth, I became even more convinced that the reason I didn't really remember seeing this before, was because it was so beautifully forgettable.
One of the most important things with any piece of writing is that it start well and finish in a way that is satisfying. That doesn't mean that every loose end needs to be tied up, but that the viewer/reader is left with a sense that their journey has come to an acceptable conclusion. Contact started relatively well, flowed sluggishly from there on, and finished with a fizzle.
I wasn't particularly looking for aliens or a revelation of god  just an interesting, compelling story. I'm still looking.
Everyone is different, but the possibility is that you will either love Contact, or hate it. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground.