Contact – Movie Review

I’m obsessed with cosmology and Carl Sagan is a personal hero of mine. I, however, have not read his novel Contact and only saw Contact when it first came to theaters so many years ago. I enjoyed it then and dislike it quite a bit now. Why the change? Well, I was eleven back then and have learned quite a bit about filmmaking and the universe. Neither are particularly well represented here.
But I’ll get to that….

My biggest problem? The fucking music. It is just so bad. It the Forrest Gump soundtrack with a few Sci-fi twists on it.

Speaking of the theme: The film opens with a slow push in on Ellie’s (main character) house with the bad, soppy piano theme playing in the background. As this happens, Ellie asks if she could use a radio signal to talk her dead mother.

I laughed out loud. Really? I saw the line coming, but couldn’t believe it. She says, “Dad, could we talk to mom”, and cheesey oboes (I think) play in the background, anwsering her line.

This my problem with the whole damn movie. Yes, dealing with death is a horrible thing, but even without her mother dying wouldn’t you think an intelligent scientists would be possessed to find aliens regardless of her fears of mortality? And more, wouldn’t it be more interesting if she just possessed a human desire to explore the cosmos? Is death the only reason? Hmm…

Why the subplot? Why the corniness? It worked in Robert Zemeckis’ Gump. That movie was tragic and it worked. In Contact the awe-inspiring universe kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Moreover, the point of the film is that Ellie, played by Jodie Foster, is a scientist obsessed with listening to the heavens and trying to hear a signal from aliens. After all, if we ever make contact, this is likely the first way it is going to happen. Moreover, while struggling to find funding for her projects she meets a sexy theologian (Matthew McConaughey) and they get their bang on and discuss God and the possibility of a higher power.

This was all the stuff I was digging. I enjoyed the respectful discussion between two intelligent people on the creation of the universe and possibilities of a creator. Rarely would such civility exist in real life, so at least we can see it in fiction.

There are instructions for a craft embedded inside the signal and the government approves to build it.

But here comes the problems:

First of all, James Woods’ character, the national security adviser, is fucking ridiculous. You wanna’ know why he is so ridiculous? Because he has to be. Otherwise there is no “bad guy”.

Even when Ellie finds the instructions to a transportation device from an alien race, the security adviser still barks and bitches. You’re supposed to hate him, but you’d think that aliens would even give him a moments pause. Sure, his job is to be a dick and be weary of everything, but c’mon, his cartoon-character persona almost ruins the film.

Another quick thing with bad guys: Tom Skerritt as the scientific aid to the President. We’re supposed to hate him because he keeps stealing Ellie’s discoveries and ideas. It leads me to the question: Who the fuck cares? We’re talking about the biggest thing to ever happen to the human race and who really cares who heard it first? This is likely Sagan’s subplot about how scientists often get fucked over such things. But again, why do I care? It just cheapens the whole thing.

When she loses the job of going on the craft and the craft is blown up, we feel a bit of satisfaction that the scientific aid died. Not Zemeckis’ intent I’m sure, but that is what happens when you make really annoying characters for no reason. Well, there was a reason, the movie needed conflict.

Furthermore, the father thing…this was just stupid. Why would an alien race transport someone across the universe to talk to an incarnation of a dead family member? And in such an awkward way? The aliens would transport them all that way and make them return with no evidence of the trip? There a billion defenses for this plot device because who knows how an alien race would react to us. They don’t know we have singularity when it comes to our minds or that we can lie or that we even need evidence to prove things to each other. Even though the scientific method seems universal…

But that is my point. If this movie is really about faith, then the filmmakers/Sagan should have made a valid attempt to justify why aliens would do this. The explanation that “This is the way it has been done for billions of years”, is not a good enough explanation for a film. It is the ultimate cop out. This is fiction, therefore, should be explained by logic/reason or narrative interest.

Supposedly, I haven’t read this myself so don’t quote me, but the novel’s aliens suggested that there was a universal creator who weaves his signature into mathematics. Now there is something interesting!

Let the aliens say something profound about the universe and world! Otherwise the space travel is just a plot device designed to create an object for a leap of faith for the rest of the world – which is fucking lame.

The ideas are there, but the execution of the story seems to be desperate. Desperate to the get the point across in a clear way, but because of this, ends up being hollow and pointless.

Finally, the scenes where Foster sees a galaxy event “up close” for the first time and says “I had no idea” over and over. My question: About what? What the fuck did you not know about? That the universe is unbelievably beautiful? Who the fuck are you talking to by the way? Mission control? If that is the case why not be A: Speechless from beauty or B: Giving detailed analysis.

Because if you’re asking the same stupid question over and over again, you’re not being much of a scientist. I’m just saying…this scene could have been one of the greats in science fiction, but ends up being weird and awkward. And then, just in time,that shitty music flares up.

She doesn’t have to say anything. Let us make the judgement about the universe. I feel like if the audience was allowed to view the “event” ourselves and just ponder it, we’d feel the same things.

Many will flame me, suggesting that she was seeing the face of God or was religiously touched in a profound way. Fine. Just don’t be so ridiculous about it.

At the finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey - probably the best movie ever made – there isn’t cheesy music. There isn’t corny dialogue. There isn’t weird, awkward close ups. Kubrick shows us the universe and lets us decide. He trusts his special effects and his audience. He trusts that no words could express these ideas and thoughts. He even cuts out music for the most part. Figuring that music probably couldn’t express it either. In Contact, the director should have gone for subtly, but ended up being overt.

In conclusion, this movie has cool ideas, but doesn’t execute its story in a satisfying way. Many people will enjoy its neutral stance on religion and science, an idea I think Sagan found profound. And maybe it is? But there just isn’t enough in this movie to wow signal me. (Sorry)

Great science fiction films use the genre to ask profound questions about the universe and humanity’s place in it. Many people like Contact because it at least tries to be interesting, even if it fails. Fine. That really is fine. But we have to acknowledge its failures. More flaming on me will happen with questions such as, “Well Collin, name a better science fiction movie. I bet you can’t!”

Well, I can. But that isn’t the point. Science fiction’s failure to live up to its potential is not a reason to say Contact is good just for trying.