"Contact"
                             A Film Review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                          WMNF-FM 88.5, Tampa, FL
                               July 12, 1997

   Last night I went to see "Contact" the new film starring Jodie Foster
based on a novel by the late Carl Sagan. It has received mixed reviews (and
was downright trashed in one of the Tampa Bay papers yesterday) but I
thought it was great. It was one of the more intensely interesting films
I've seen in a long time. The story moves along at a brisk pace and has
elements of intrigue and well-developed personal relationships as well as
lots of top notch special effects.  What a relief to have a science
fiction film for adults, one that is not just science fiction but that at
least raises pressing philosophical questions about science, knowledge, and
faith. Sometimes, in its efforts to raise such questions and still be a
popular mass-audience film, it simplfies them to the point of absurdity
and throws around buzz words (the favorite here being Occam's Razor) with
abandon.

     The best thing about the film is Jodie Foster's character and her per-
formance. I read an interview of Foster recently in which she was quoted
as saying something to the effect that she keeps playing the same role
over and over and that nobody seemed to notice it but her. Now that she
mentions it, yes, it's largely true (except for the films she directs herself
and stars in such as "Little Man Tate" and "Home for the Holidays.") But
this one is surely the most fully developed of these characterizations. I
found it very powerful and moving. First of all, as a feminist in
an age when, alas, if you ask preadolescent girls what their idea of a
scientist is, they're STILL likely to answer "older man in a white lab
coat," it's just great to have popular films that depict women as both
highly intelligent and utterly devoted to their scientific pursuits. The
only other film I can think of that does this as well was the depiction of
Helen Hunt's character in "Twister." In "Contact" we get more of Ellen's
background. Early encouragement in ham radio and astronomy from her
father, undergraduate degree from MIT with honors, Ph.D. from Cal Tech,
turns down a faculty position at Harvard to pursue her passion of listening
to radio signals from deep space in the hope of discovering signs of other
intelligent life in the universe.

   I cannot tell you what happens when Ellen finally does find that signal
she's been looking for, I want you to experience all that yourself, but I
can say it seems entirely on target as it explores the sexual and other
kinds of politics that rear their heads in such situations.

    What's particularly nice about Jodie Foster's role is that it gives her
the leeway to express all kinds of different emotions. On the whole, she's
a disciplined and rational person who keeps her emotions under wraps. Her
achievement here is to let you see the emotions that reside under the
surface and the struggles she has, and sometimes loses, to keep them in c
heck. I especially liked what she did at the end of the film when she's in
the most physically dangerous and uncertain situations. It could have
been played in a heroic mode a la Sigourney Weaver in the Aliens films,
but Foster, instead, emphasizes her character's vulnerability and fear, in
spite of which she nevertheless keeps on going. The approach makes the
space travel sequences less like comic strip science fiction and much
more realistinc and compelling.

    A word needs to be said about the all-star supporting cast. Two that
stand out are Tom Skerrit as Arroway's one-time teacher who only
sporadically has her best career interests at heart--at those times when
they don't interfere with his. Matthew McConaghy plays Parker Joss, a
"man of the cloth without the cloth" who writes a book exploring whether,
on the whole, science and technology have had a positive effect on
humankind and becomes the unofficial spiritual advisor in the Clinton
White House. Other supporting cast members include John Hurt as a very
eccentric billionaire, James Woods as the National Security Chief and later
Senator, Angela Bassett as a key White House aide, and Rob Lowe doing his
best impersonation of Ralph Reed as the head of a national Christian
right organization.


For the WMNF Women's Show, this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.