An absolutely marvelous film.

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2000)

This is my favorite film of all time. This movie captures my heart so much because it makes me imagine what extraordinary experience will be the defining moment of my life. Imagine your life's goal coming true and you are the only person on the planet who will ever be able to savor that experience. An utterly incredible premise.
What also fascinated me so much about this movie was how the concept of intelligent life on other planets never deteriorated to the special effect and explosion extravaganzas that almost always characterized films in this genre. Contact, thanks to the book written by Carl Sagan, was put together thoughtfully and intelligently. I also thought that Jodie Fosters character received a major boost in the movie, which made the plot incredibly complex, enormously deeper than what meets the eye. Many of the internal conflicts of her character were presented in the earlier parts of the movie and you have to pay attention and catch them to understand just how significant each scene was. Then you will appreciate how important Matthew McConnahey's character was. If you passively absorb the movie, you will not get much of it! And if you catch those "cues," you will understand why they made the ending like that.
Technically, I was totally blown away by the discovery sequence. I was also completely astonished by the entire second half of the film. The physics, the visuals, the editing were so well blended into the fabric of her transportation that I was stunned agasp. This is truly a marvelous movie, full of symbolisms and messages that it was just overwhelming. But, its not for everyone. If you like Armaggedon, Independence Day, Men In Black, and movies like that, you probably won't appreciate the subtlety of this movie.