"But it is summer," you said. "I don't want to think about my aliens. I want to laugh at them, be scared by them or simply watch Will Smith destroy them. I can't be bothered with questions of science, theology and the unifying factors of the universe, I just want to see Harrison Ford kick butt and John Travolta cry."
Well, the summer is over and with the fall comes Hollywood's more intelligent, personal films. So it is only fitting that the Dartmouth Film Society brings back to the screen "Contact," a film with summer blockbuster aspirations but the heart of a small, thinking-man's film which many overlooked in the summer of "Men in Black."
Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Oscar winner for "Forrest Gump"), based on the novel by the late Pulitzer Prize winning Carl Sagan ("Cosmos") and starring two time Oscar winner Jodie Foster, "Contact" has a pedigree which alone elevates it beyond most movies.
But all the better is that it dares to ask big, bold questions (Is there a God? If so does He have a place in science?) and attacks its subject with such earnestness and care that it manages to careen over its serious flaws.
The film chronicles man's first contact with extra-terrestrial life through the eyes of Dr. Ellie Arroway (Foster), a radio astronomer who is wasting away her talent chasing space men at SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial life). She spends her lonely life listening to the airwaves and begging for funding.
On one of her projects in Mexico she runs into Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a divinity school drop out who is set to become the President's spiritual advisor. After an interesting debate on the duties of God and science, in which we discover Ellie is an atheist, they form an awkward romance which continues through the film.
After being forced to relocate to the Very Large Array in New Mexico, Ellie's practiced ear picks up on an inconsistency behind all the static. It is a thrilling scene of discover as she breathlessly tries to track down the signal she has waited for her whole life.
The signal is coming from the distant Vega Galaxy and consists of a series of prime numbers. After all, the movie asks, would not mathematics be the universal language?
Soon the entire government is crashing in on her project and Tom Skerritt's science advisor to the President swoops in and starts taking credit even though he has spent years trying to shut SETI down.
When the signal is pinpointed they find a harrowing television clip which has been sent back to them. Within that clip they find intricate plans for a giant machine which may be for possible transport to their world or invasion into ours.
When the decision is made to go ahead and build the machine, the question remains as to who should be the first person to make contact with our alien neighbors.
Should it be a scientist since science is the language they chose to communicate with?
Or should it be a religious person since most of the world's population believes in some form of God? But a person of what religion?
A cultural, religious and political circus begins to surround the site of Ellie's discovery and the questions it poses. In the middle of it all lies Foster's strong, grounding performance.
With her intricate gaze and intelligent voice Foster creates a character so strong in her convictions yet alone in the social world. Her Ellie believes so strongly in the work her father had started her on many years ago that she is prepared to give her life to find the answers she has been searching for.
With the help of an eccentric, ailing billionaire, played by John Hurt as a cross between Rupert Murdoch and the Wizard of Oz, Ellie gets her wish to be the first passenger in the machine.
Her final journey is not as amazing as one had hoped, but is still an invigorating rush. Zemeckis has a talent for using his special effects without sacrificing the story and Foster's performance is so convincing that we could follow her anywhere.
There are many flaws in the film: Ellie and Palmer's relationship would not have worked even if McConaughey was old enough to play the part and the film drags on a little too much in the end.
But like Ellie, the film has an unstoppable earnestness which carries it through its weaker moments. "Contact" is science fiction at its best. It believes so strongly in its subject that you cannot help but be wrapped up in it yourself.
"Contact" is showing tonight at 6:30 and 9:15 in Spauldiing.
