Drugstore.com Coupons
Her method of choice is monitoring outer space radio. Her cause is supported by blind co-worker (and all-around nice guy) Kent (William Fichtner). The villain is Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), a politically involved and glory-seeking scientist who first opposes Eleanor, then tries to aggrandize her work once she strikes paydirt. Government advisors include suspicious NSA head James Woods, powerful bureaucrat Angela Bassett, and dreamboat spiritualist Matthew McConaughey, who always looks at Jodie Foster as if he's considering inviting her into his bedroom.
Other interesting actors include David Morse (who plays the Perfect Father adored by Foster when she was little), and John Hurt (in a typically eccentric role as Foster's brilliant and secretive zillionaire backer).
How others will see it. This movie made money and remains enormously popular. Its theme and characters are compelling. Making Foster the main character was a smart move, since the recent Oscar winner gave the project credibility. More importantly, she brought in the female audience, which would have little interest in a strictly male intellectual exploration, a la 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of course, since Foster was still a hottie in 1997, she also adds male interest.
Contact may be only an average-quality Hollywood blockbuster, but is excellent as a model on how to make such films profitable. A science fiction theme. A hottie female lead. A slow-cooking romance with a highly desirable but hard-to-get guy. Villains who must be overcome without losing faith. And never any hint of compromise from the lead character, who nonetheless accepts with remarkable grace the mettlesome choice of Skerritt as intergalactic astronaut.
How I felt about it. So, what's the problem with Contact? Since most viewers like it, what's not to like? Well, first, it's not a matter of liking. The problem is one of credibility.
I have to admit that I sneaked a peek at imdb.com's "goofs" section, always a useful thing to do for non-comedy sci-fi films. Unsurprisingly, the story has several problems, most of which center around a single scene where meanie James Woods is successfully giving our preternaturally earnest heroine Foster the third degree in front of a television audience.
One of the flaws I actually thought of myself while watching the film. If Woods is so skeptical that Foster visited the Vega solar system, why doesn't he himself go for a ride in the "Saturn's belt space capsule drop" amusement park attraction that cost the government(s) so much to build. Actually, I wouldn't want to go either, although I would be curious who would be there to meet me on Vega instead of David Morse.
Since the Foster inquisition consists of only one unrepresentative scene, it is hardly sufficient to affect the overall quality of the movie. A truly credible movie would never have any signals from Vega to begin with. Or, they would have been discovered by someone else first. Or, someone outside of Foster's team would have realized the signal contains video images and reams of technical data. Someone other than her bald megalomaniac mentor would have discovered the Rosetta Stone within the transmitted documents. The first video image focused upon is unlikely to be a perfectly centered swastika. Which is discovered at the same time Woods and Skerritt and Bassett are making a visit. Lastly, someone already in the space program would have gone into the capsule. They've been specifically trained for such a mission.
And, of course, McConaughey's character would be wed to someone else, nixing the possibility of their bubbling-under romance. But then we'd miss the drama of Foster getting a pronto beauty make-over just in time to impress him at the reception (as if her sexuality is the quality that interests him most). If she wanted to surprise him, she should have demonstrated a sense of humor instead.