[8]

Contact is a message-driven movie that may be too esoteric for a lot of mainstream moviegoers. It’s a character-driven drama with only a few moments of your typical blockbuster spectacle — but I applaud the movie for daring to tangle in an exploration of science vs theology. Jodie Foster gives an impassioned performance as Ellie Arroway, an astronomer (and atheist) who discovers a message from deep space. The message turns out to be schematics a mysterious transport. While Ellie helps the government prepare to launch a representative into the unknown, she develops a relationship with Palmer Joss, a pop culture man of the cloth played by Matthew McConaughey. Contact uses Ellie and Palmer as vehicles for an honest debate, but never disrespects either character or their points of view. If you’re uninterested in the movie’s message, the plot’s climax may disappoint you. But the plot isn’t what’s most compelling here. There’s a climax of character and of theme when Ellie returns from her intergalactic travels. Without a shred of evidence to prove what she saw, Ellie finds herself in a painful paradox: the atheist is forced to convince the theists to accept her word… on faith.

Contact features strong performances all around, including solid supporting turns by James Woods, William Fichtner, Tom Skerritt, Jake Busey, and John Hurt. Director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) tells Carl Sagan’s story at a natural, easy pace, allowing us to slowly crawl into Ellie’s skin and identify with her on a level uncommon for major Hollywood films. The music by Alan Silvestri is simple, elegant, and moving, and the sound design is equally superb in its often minimalist approach.

Oscar Nomination: Best Sound