Ya Gotta Have Faith!

Rating: 6/10 (31 March 2005)

Although I read Sagan's "Cosmic Connection" as a teenager, when it was first published and can say that it had some influence upon me, I have not read "Contact" and can only view the movie on it's own terms.
Whilst the movie reflects great intellectual ambition the end result is entertaining but without any serious depth. In particular, we are subjected to an immense amount of rumination upon the "spiritual", "belief" and "faith" but at a level of very puerile Sunday-school philosophy. A matter made worse by the role in this of the flunked priest and presidential adviser who seems to have been intended as both the love element and a figure of integrity. He actually comes across as smarmy, disingenuous, hypocritical, selfish and ultimately bereft of a true "moral compass". In spite of his pompous pontifications about his buddy relationship with God, he acts purely on a self-interest basis and to be frank, is a bit of a reptile.
To an extent, the story seems to have been turned into an anti-science rant, which I cannot believe Sagan intended. The plot doesn't help. Having created a wonderful enigma ( what really happened cannot be answered ) which is expressive of so much in the scientific experience, it then destroy's this effect by revealing ( back-stage as it were ) a secret piece of evidence that confirms that there was in fact proof of only one version of what had happened! Maybe the producers didn't have faith in the audience's ability to handle the question.
In any case, if the alternative explanation of a hoax needed to be tested, it would have been easy to find out one way or another if that was the case, now that Haddon was dead!
Moreover, why did Foster's character not continue to study the same source, rather than building new dishes to help her start all over from scratch?
There are also BIG problems over the setting of the events. The repeated and very irritating intrusion of the smirking visage of Bill Clinton as president puts it back then. As does the featuring of Mir. But we keep seeing a vertical take off passenger jet which only exists as an aeroplane designers fantasy. Even the V22 Osprey, the nearest thing to it in reality, is powered by giant propellers. So when is it supposed to take place?
The acting is superb. such as when Foster sees Skerrit die ( after nearly saving his life ) and wordlessly expresses the impression of guilty sorrow for having hated him. Or was she really thinking how lucky she was that it wasn't her blown up? The camera dwells on her at some length and one is forced to wonder. It is a poignant moment.
Undoubtedly, for me, by far and away the best thing in the movie is when Foster must enter the machine and pauses to look down. Two helmetted, uniformed technicians like figures from some kind of psycho drama wordlessly looking on. The realisation of the machine is very well done, carrying with it a sense of frightening power and the awesome immensity of the engineering forces at work. I am reminded of seeing steam locomotives when I was a small child. The approach to the capsule really creates a sense of the loneliness of Foster-characters next few steps, augmented by the foreigness of the Japanese attendants whose only communication is a miniscule, fleeting nod.
The one big question the movie leaves one with is this: Why didn't they simply build the machine again and find out what it leads to?