Contact

Contact is yet another sci-fi film in a long line, but it distinguishes itself by not being about horrific space monsters. Instead, the film suggests that if other intelligent beings exist out in space, then making their acquaintance might be of great benefit to mankind.

Ellie Arroway is a young, tireless space scientist who cannot get backing for her project to search the heavens for signals from other planets. Nor does she meet with much understanding from the American government, but eventually she manages to get her project financed by the eccentric billionaire Hadden. When Ellie finally makes contact, however, the President and his advisers turn the matter into a national concern; the signal from the star Vega contains instructions for building a special machine that can give a single passenger the opportunity to meet the aliens. After much drama, Ellie is chosen to carry out the mission.

The depiction of Ellie's space journey is highly visionary. It felt as though we, as viewers, were sucked out into space with her. When Ellie wakes up after what she herself estimates to be 18 hours in space, she is told that she has never been away. The miniature camera recorded only static, but the film does not dare stick with this ambiguous ending, so it emerges that the camera recorded static for eighteen hours.

Contact is an interesting space film because it dares to leave some questions open. A prominent theme is the scientist Ellie's categorical rejection of faith, but after the space journey she herself has to ask people to believe her, as she has no proof. Matthew McConaughey is the young priest and later presidential adviser Palmer Joss, who is a good support for Ellie but also tries to remind her that science is not omnipotent.

I found it hard to stomach the film's sentimental sequences, for example the backstory about Ellie's tragic childhood, in which she lost her parents and has since been searching for them in another world.