E) Contact

CONTACT (PG) [**...] Directed by Robert Zemeckis

A very promising story badly marred by bad pacing and endless clich?s.
It starts with a young girl clearly searching the airwaves for the
voice of her dead mother, i.e. heaven. We then get a strong indication
that she also does not believe in God. So, we have a film about science
verses faith, with a clear indication of the punch line - she will
accept the true nature of her search and the necessity of faith, i.e.
God makes girl, God loose girl, girl goes out with science for a bit,
God gets girl - a good old-fashioned love story. The whole thing seems
to be an attempt to treat the subject of alien contact seriously and
examine the global and spiritual consequences of proof of the existence
or alien life, i.e. the EXACT opposite of Independence Day. It is a
shame that it isn't even close to opposite, and in many cases falls
into exactly the same traps, stock characters, poor dialog, and
blinkered environment.

We have the blind man with super-human hearing and smell, the
man-in-controls who is skeptical, corrupt and nasty - no redeeming
features at all, the government official who is obsessed with alien
invasion, and the eccentric millionaire who controls EVERYTHING, and
what about the evangelist terrorist - I couldn't tell that THAT was
going to happen.

We have the constantly repeated phrase "... But if it's just us, it
would be an awful waste of space.", the terrible dialog with the
aliens, half her father half avuncular entity, and her passionate "what
if man had been too afraid to build the airplane" speech.

We have a nice jungle scene to indicate the nutty/hippie scientists, a
BIG office were she goes to get the money, also the dark, close room in
the plane with all the surveillance cameras, and everything centres on
the good old U.S.A. Oh, and did you notice the "British" news reporter
wearing a tweed suit and a bow tie?

Almost all of the film is made up of things you've seen before, the
business meeting with the boss secretly looking in (WORKING GIRL), the
use of a real President (FOREST GUMP), the blind man who "discovers"
the hidden secret (SNEAKERS), the military obsession with invasion
(INDEPENDENCE DAY etc.), the little girl at the funeral (SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS) and from the same film the whole business of men verses women.
Of course I still haven't mentioned the obvious glaring CRIME that has
been committed by Zemeckis, the THEFT of the 2001 transportation
experience, admittedly it was nicely done, but if Kubrik had made it
today it would probably be better (did you notice the brief hint of
"Also Sprach" during the sequence - he couldn't even be bothered to get
new music).

It was too long, had too many slow moments with no clear pay off,
although the slow beginning could have been to represent the hours
spent listening to static before they finally get THE signal. But, if
that was the case then the rest of the film should have been
better.

Like FOREST GUMP this film has some too many loose threads dangling
around looking for a needle. He never really gets down and makes his
point, he always seems to be adding another idea until we are swamped
with bit and pieces all over the place. Why was the priest lapsed, the
only reason that I can see is so that he could sleep with Jodie Foster
- which added NOTHING to the story. What was Rob Lowe doing, I am still
trying to think of ONE good reason for his character (unless it's just
to get work for Rob Lowe).

And Bill Clinton was a BIG mistake, it simply dates the film.

I read something on the internet that suggests it was taken from an
award winning novel, in which case it's a shame it wasn't given to a
good director, the kind that can take a story and TELL it, not turn it
into an excuse for more special effects. I know I always say this, but
I think Rob Reiner would have done a much better job.

Lastly I think the PG certificate was a bad idea, not because of the
content, but because it is impossible to watch with bored children
shuffling around behind you (and I speak from experience).