0- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, July R3, 1997
Science, religion clash in Sagan's
intellectual, searching 'Contact'


By Bryan Lark
Daily Arts Writer
Is there intelligent life in the uni-
verse? Specifically, is there intelligent
life in Hollywood?
In one bold, epic stroke, Robert
Zemeckis' "Contact" answers both
questions with a resounding, "Yes,
dammit!"
Just by intelligently communicating
a realistic tale of
alien intelligence,
"Contact" is
already separated
from the recent
crop of summer
films - it doesn't
even need to be any Ate
good to be a stand-
out.
Fortunately for everyone involved,
"Contact" is better than good. It's an
outstanding example of the forgotten
principle that movies can make people
think and not just make people
explode.
And "Contact" does make you think
- to a fault.
Concentrating far too heavily on its
complex theme of the conflict between
science and religion, the film allows
its characters and dialogue to be over-
shadowed. However, one gets the dis-
tinct impression that this adaptation of
Carl Sagan's novel was meant to be
cerebral and not cinematic.
Sagan's memory is imprinted
throughout the story of passionate
astronomer Ellie Arroway (Jodie
Foster) as she scans the cosmos with
obscenely large radio equipment for
some sort of sign from up there, out

Br

there, somewhere.
The tale of Ellie begins as a slow
build through her childhood, her love
life, solely featuring sinning religious
guy Palmer Joss (Matthew
McConaughey), and her trials and
tribulations as she tries to keep her
cosmic channel surfing afloat.
When Ellie happens upon a strange
series of rhythmic beats from 26 light
years away, her
life's work sud-
R E V I E W denly pays off,
answering in a
:OntaCt single moment
* .* the world's ques-
tions about man's
riarwood and Showcase suspicious soli-
tude in the uni-
verse.
As everyone begins to listen to and
decode the message as closely as Ellie,
she begins an arduous journey to be
the one to answer E.T's phone call in
person, meeting
all manner of
wackos - gov- on
ernment yes-
men, scientists the que
and religious p
zealots -along t r int
the way.
E v e n l
Preside nt
Clinton gets in I
on the action as
Ellie becomes
the object of admiration and scrutiny,
leading the world's conclusive deci-
sion on whether to have faith in a high-
er power or believe the scientific fact.
Ellie can't make that decision and

neither, then, does the film, leaving the
audience with a heated topic to debate
on the way home.
Succeeding as a celluloid essay,
"Contact" fails as a summer movie and
there's absolutely nothing wrong with
that.
Deliberately, necessarily slow, to
film preaches its ambiguous gospel
over 2 1/2 hours, culminating in some
spectacular technological and emo-
tional wizardry.
Zemeckis and George Lucas'
Industrial Light and Magic take good
care of the high-tech part, but the emo-
tional burden falls on the shoulders of
Jodie Foster, perfectly cast as the
smart, conflicted Ellie.
Foster and her actions are so intens
and so intoxicating that the rest of t1l
cast and story seem like styrofoam
peanuts surrounding some precious
mail-order cargo - and said cargo
would have to be damn precious to
waste Angela
Bassett, James
a W rs Woods and John
Hurt.
$io , "Contact"'s
cargo is just th
precious.
offers to solve
the principal
I" problems of
man's existence
through the eyes
of one woman's
inner struggle.
And if you act now you can be enter-
tained in the process of solutions.
Many important questions included.
Answers sold separately. 0

Jodie Foster combats aliens ranging from inspirational speaker Tony Robbins to
Dennis Rodman in Robert Zemeckis' 'Contact.' Foster must disengage HAL to
save the planet (above) and tries to tune in to 89X from Ann Arbor (below).

lalil

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