Thomas McCallum’s review published on Letterboxd:
Performances: 6.2/10
Story: 6.5/10
Production: 8.2/10
Overall: 6.97/10
At the close of the first act, I paused Contact to make some dinner. The entire time that I ate all I could think about was how much potential it had. There was this Spielbergian quality to the whole thing. It really was a great set up.
When I finished eating I started it back up. I was a little disappointed.
Once Robert Zemeckis delves into the world of the adult Ellie, things lose that intangible charm and start to get a bit uneven. I didn't love Jodie Foster, there was just something entirely unconvincing about her tech-speak. You could tell she was just reading gibberish off of a piece of paper, and it was kind of a mood killer. The supporting cast was pretty solid, but there were no real standouts, even McConaughey couldn't do it for me.
Even worse, once we get to the big conclusion, something that had been building for over two hours, things just didn't live up to my admittedly lofty expectations. The whole faith versus science plot line never really gelled with me and in the end it just seemed to slowly sizzle out into a giant cop-out.
One thing that certainly deserves mentioning is the one thing that Contact had going for it consistently from start to finish: the camerawork. The obvious example of course being the brilliant hallway long shot, where the camera essentially does a complete 180 degree turn without ever moving. I also enjoyed a scene aboard Hadden's airplane where we're looking at Ellie through surveillance cameras only to have it transition back to "normal" almost seamlessly.
Contact isn't the genius Sci-Fi movie from the brain of Carl Sagan that I hoped it would be. However, it's a fresh take on the genre (or it was in 1997) that doesn't mind taking chances on the spirituality side of things. For me, those faith based moments didn't sit well, but to others it might. One thing is for sure though - it's a very well made film and one that deserves the recent surge in popularity.