Contact
Cast
Jodie Foster .... Dr. Eleanor Ann 'Ellie' Arroway
Jena Malone .... Young Ellie
Matthew McConaughey .... Father Palmer Joss
David Morse .... Ted Arroway
Geoffrey Blake .... Fisher
Directed by
Robert Zemeckis
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
5/10. Robert Zemeckis is one of the most versatile directors of our time.
He's directed fantasy (Back to the Future), horror (What Lies
Beneath), comedy (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), drama (Forrest Gump), and
now science-fiction in Contact. It's quite obvious that Zemeckis is a
Spielberg prot�g�, because, like Speilberg, Zemeckis has
distinguishable features. While Spielberg has precocious children and
endings that go on twenty minutes too long, Zemeckis has that Gump-
ish music, precocious children, and endings that go on too long. What
Zemeckis creates is very uneven: at one part it's exciting and
unpredictable, and then the next it's as boring as watching snails
race.
Based on the best-selling book by Carl Sagan (to whom this movie is
dedicated), Contact basically revolves around Ellie (Jodie Foster),
who has dedicated her life to finding life out there ("If there's no
one else out there, it seems like an awful waste of space"). She
hears radio signals from the star Vega, and after long deductions, it
turns out that they are blueprints to build a gigantic machine.
Undeveloped characters and media buzz ensues.
Possibly the best, and only remarkable part of Contact are the
spectacular special effects. Zemeckis always directs great camera
movements, and the opening few minutes really show that. Not only
does it move with great grace, but also it's amazing to look at. It's
breathtaking. The only other technically supreme scene was at the
end, but I don't wish to give anything else away. While those two
scenes excel in their technology, the rest of the movie isn't as
marvelous. Although Zemeckis could have gone the easy way out and
made it just eye candy (which would have made the movie a lot more
interesting), he decided to throw in one-dimensional characters here
and there (I didn't even know that a character was blind until I read
about it online) and throw in a weak romance between Ellie and Palmer
Joss (Matthew McConaughey). I don't really see how Ellie could go
from rejecting Palmer to making out with him a few scenes later (it
seems like a few scenes were taken out here and there to make the
runtime shorter). It's not to say that most of the middle is boring,
it's just not exciting. Also, was I supposed to have an epiphany or
something? I see how this could convince an atheist, but I already
believe in God, and the whole "spirituality" thing, although it adds
to the characters, seems unnecessary.
Jodie Foster, due to the birth of her baby, hasn't been in that many
movies, so she must choose the ones that she can act the best in, and
it seems like she does. Although most of her scenes involve yelling
at someone, she conveyed the right amount of both skepticism and
firmness. McConaughey is wasted, as is James Woods and Tom Skerritt.
However, David Morse, as Ellie's father in flashback scenes, does an
amazingly good job, conveying everything that I know David Morse to
not be.
If Hollywood produced more movies like Contact, then our movie supply
would be better. However, if they were all exactly like it, then it
would be no more than the onslaught of mediocre movies we've been
having recently.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG for some intense action, mild language and a scene of sensuality.
Running time: 153 minutes
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