DVD Review: Contact

What if intelligent life exists beyond Earth? What if we were able to contact it? These questions are innocent enough, but the ramifications of such an event would be staggering. Contact attempts to address this very issue and in doing so, it becomes not a story about communication with aliens, but rather a look at ourselves.

Contact is based on the book of the same name, authored by the late Carl Sagan. Sagan, known for his efforts to make astronomy more popular and interesting for non-astronomers, crafted the story around scientific theories and plausible conjecture. True, it's a work of fiction, but his goal was to make it feel authentic by relying on real science. Contact never loses the feeling that it "could" happen. The movie does differ in several significant ways from the book, but the underlying sense of authenticity is still there, despite a few technical goofs.

The story is told from the point of view of Ellie Arroway, who was introduced to astronomy by her father. When her father passes away, young Ellie becomes obsessed with searching the stars, perhaps as a way to fill the void left by her dad's passing. She isn't content with simply observing the heavens, however. Her goal is to contact intelligent life because maybe, just maybe, someone out there has the answers to life and death that she's searching for.

At the risk of professional ridicule, the adult Arroway (Jodie Foster) devotes her career to SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Her efforts are continually sidelined by David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), who feels she is wasting her talents. Not to be pushed aside so easily, Arroway solicits funding from Hadden Industries and continues her research at the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

The VLA is government owned and eventually Drumlin successfully lobbies to have Arroway's research shut down. With only days remaining at the facility, Arroway miraculously discoveres what seems to be a message from space.

Not only does the message appear to be authentic, but it seems to contain a staggering amount of information. Drumlin, forgetting his earlier condemnation of Arroway's work, steps in to run the effort to decode the message, yet again attempting to push Arroway aside.

Strangely enough, for a film so centered on science, the overriding theme of the story centers on faith. Arroway is a woman governed by proof. In her thinking, if something cannot be explained in reasonable terms, then it's foolish to waste time on it. She adheres to this burden of proof especially when it comes to matters of religion and God. However, the paradox this way of thinking presents in her conviction that extraterrestrial life exists eludes her.

The counterpoint to Arroway is the Reverend Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a man who believes that faith is really all we have. Reverend Joss comes across as a man against science, but his real concern is that we not use science as a crutch to replace matters of faith.

Arroway and Joss engage in several philosophical debates that are intriguing, but wisely offer no concrete solutions. This isn't a movie about answers, but about questions and possibilities and it reminds us that faith isn't a concept owned exclusively by religions. This is a lesson Arroway learns the hard way as her experiences are called into question.

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