In lieu of a more lucrative career, a brilliant scientist (Jodie Foster) makes her living studying the stars and satellites for signs of extraterrestrial life, partly in an attempt to reach her parents whom she lost in childhood. When she discovers what appears to be an actual message from a star light years away with what appear to be contact instructions, it creates national hysteria over who should pay for the device, who should be the one to make the initial reception, and should we even partake in this particular endeavor. (spoilers) Based on Carl Sagan's book, Robert Zemeckis' Contact lacks the profundity it thinks it possesses in its religion vs science themes (in what is actually cornball philosophy) but the Foster performance is in earnest and her culminating intergalactic journey is remarkable.
*** out of ****
