WARNING!!!
These previews contain vital plot information and other potentially movie-spoiling stuff!
If you don't want to know, read no further!

CONTACT

Written by Menno Meyjes, Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan, Michael Goldenberg, Jim V. Hart. Rewrite by Michael Goldenberg. Based on the novel by Carl Sagan. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Jodie Foster, James Woods, Matthew McConaughey.

Joining the flood of recent films to speculate about mankind's possible encounter with intelligences from other worlds is CONTACT, based on the best-selling book by the late Carl Sagan. The aim of this script seems to be to avoid any of the superficial shenanigans that other, more pop-oriented films dealing with this subject matter have employed. This time when a radio signal from another world is detected it isn't because the E.T.'s want to kill us and steal our planet's resources (INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE ARRIVAL) or because they want to be our new bestest buddies and teach us about universal love (E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND). Nope, there's none of that razzle-dazzle nonsense here. This is a serious examination of what could happen should another, more advanced society decide to contact us. No big huge explosions (well, okay - ONE big huge explosion), no buggy-eyed aliens who either want to hug us or conquer us, no heroic military-types finding a new, politically acceptable target to use their cool weapons on. Not in this script.

Too bad.

Ohmygod - the first radio signal from extraterrestrials...
and it sounds just like 'Smoke on the Water'!

The story, in a nutshell, follows Eleanor 'Ellie' Arroway, a radio astronomer who is obsessed with finding proof of life somewhere else in the universe. Having lost her father when she was young (not under the sofa or behind the refrigerator - he's killed in a car wreck) she is a loner, a maverick. Working at a J.P.L. site in the Mojave Desert, Ellie's obsession to find a radio signal from another intelligence frightens her colleagues to the point that her funding is cut off. But, as luck would have it, it's just at this moment Ellie detects the signal she's waited her whole life to find. Ellie releases word of this contact, which of course pisses off government officials, who think the good ol' U.S. of A should have exclusive rights to it. As the signal is decoded it becomes apparent that it contains plans for some kind of thingamabob to transport a single human back to the source of the signal. Ellie desperately wants to go, but her rebellious attitude dooms her and she is rejected for the assignment. But when the original 'machine' (as the thingamabob is called) is blowed up real good by a fanatic who slips through the elaborate security system (a chain link fence) another is built and Ellie gets the chance to take the journey. And what a journey it is. Ellie is strapped into the 'machine' and whisked away to... a beach somewhere. Why, it's Pensacola, Florida! And who's this walking down the beach toward her? Say, isn't that her dead dad? Well, no. And it's not Florida, either. See, this is the alien contact. They try to make the experience as familiar and pleasing as possible, so they snag Ellie's memories to provide an environment more conducive to communication. The alien/dad tells Ellie that there are a whole bunch of other civilizations out here, that we're pretty lost and confused as a planet... and that she has her mother's hands. And then she's back! Back on Earth, which those outside the 'machine' maintain she never left. The rest of the script deals with the psychological ramifications that Ellie must endure - not only from what she experienced, but from those who think it's all a bunch of malarkey. But of course she is vindicated at the end, when the E.T.'s send a signal to the people of Earth to let them know that we are not alone.

So, uh, which one's the pretty one?

See? A little more thoughtful than, "Look! An alien! Shoot it!". But honestly, CONTACT isn't saying anything new, it's just saying it in a different way. A different, kind of boring way. It's really honorable that the filmmakers are trying to be smarter than the average sci-fi opus, but couldn't it be smart and entertaining? I don't know what else to say about this script. I just didn't get it. I couldn't visualize it, I thought the characters were bland, and I thought the whole alien encounter deal where Ellie winds up on a beach talking to her father was a major disappointment. I don't know, it actually made me want to see something green, slimy and tentacled, fer chrissakes! And the fact that alien/dad really had nothing to say that hadn't been said in other sci-fi films only added to the anti-climax. And that's what this film delivers - one big stinkin' nothing of an ending. There's a lot of promise that we're building up to something wondrous... and what we get is a beach, a dad, and a light show in the sky. CONTACT thinks it's ideas are what's wondrous, but they're pedestrian, too.

MY PROGNOSIS? It's gonna get a big push by Warners, but I can't imagine this is going to be a huge hit. Especially because moviegoers are going to be assaulted by MEN IN BLACK one week earlier. When choosing between fun, slimy aliens and cerebral, subtle aliens, I'd bet on the slime.

VARIETY: "Like Jodie Foster's hopeful space voyager in the picture, CONTACT may not travel quite as far as it hopes to go, but the trip is worth taking nonetheless... CONTACT is a serious and sober piece of speculative fiction... Beautifully crafted and legitimately involving once it locks onto a dramatic track, film benefits from remaining mysterious about how far it intends to go in pursuing its themes, but also suffers from long-windedness and preachy final-reel explicitness as to its message... When CONTACT is at its best, notably during its strong middle third, it is very good indeed, but it is not as sharp or incisive as it might have been in summarizing its concerns in nonverbal ways; for example, the visual trip contains far too much distracting commentary from its passenger... But the picture's style and technical quality are consistently outstanding."

CRITIC'S CHOICE: "Jodie Foster's overwhelming intelligence makes her casting in CONTACT as scientist Ellie Arroway ideal. No other actress could be motionless and still have you swear you hear her brain rattling over unfathomable hypotheses... However, as you sit in a dark movie theater and the hours tick away, you slowly realize that there are no labyrinthine ideas in Michael Goldenberg's bloated screenplay (which was based on Carl Sagan's eponymous book). Indeed, there are few ideas of any sort... CONTACT is a pretty empty picture with a fine performance by Foster, superb cinematography by Don Burgess, and some fine special effects."

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page!