A moderately diverting trip into space

Rating: 6/10 (30 January 2020)

I thought I knew the 'twist' at the end of this movie before watching it. Turns out that was only a half-truth, and my foreknowledge didn't affect my enjoyment whatsoever. Oh well.
Jodie Foster plays a young girl into science (once a rarity, now virtually the case in ever movie. Apparently, it's too sexist to portray them as liking dolls and dresses or something). Her doting dad dies one day, and she grows up desperate to prove his theory of life in space by making 'Contact' with extraterrestrial lifeforms. Title drop. Nniiccee.
Matthew McConaughey is the bloke she has a one night stand with, but being a religious type is more than a bit skeptical of her beliefs. Think Mulder and Scully from The X Files, but reversed, and you've got some idea of their relationship. (also, I must say he looks and sounds much more like a stoned-out surfer dude than a priest, but what do I know?)
The movie goes through the gears of introducing it's not-very-complex characters (including archive footage of Bill Clinton, who apparently wasn't asked first) and it remains amiably entertaining throughout, with a few high points and some dull spots. The two-and-a-half hour length doesn't feel justified, but it's hard to ponder on what could've been cut out. Who'd be an editor?!
Basically, contrary to what some overzealous critics have said, Contact isn't anything too complicated at all, considering it's weighty subject... unless you count the Star Trek-esque technobabble that springs up now and then. It's just a nice way to waste half an afternoon... before forgetting virtually everything about a week later.
I only saw it today, but trust me... I have confidence in this. 6/10