Contact

Contact is certainly not as shallowly appealing as the famous Zemeckis Back to the Future trilogy, but in the director's filmography and the genre of sci-fi films, it occupies an even more important place. Zemeckis proved that it was possible to make an audience-friendly sci-fi film without cheap genre props and action scenes. Zemeckis is constantly involved in the field of scientific theories and his world vision of contact with extraterrestrial civilization has a realistic basis. The driving forces of the film are dramatic, well-written dialogues, convincingly portrayed character psychology, impressive plot twists, and clever film ideas. The film is very well cast and also well-acted. The budget is adequate for the demanding artistic vision, and Zemeckis luckily had a reputation from previous successful films and was able to impress the producers. Overall impression: 80%. (06/20/2006)

Sci-fi you can believe. Zemeckis's insistent focus on the female protagonist, with whom we are repeatedly taken back to her childhood, can feel tedious and lengthy at first, but in the end it’s the psychological portrait of an alienated woman fulfilling her life's dreams that dominates the narrative and sets up a solid emotional foundation for the final intradimensional build-up. It's hard to judge, but the political/social hysteria about making contact with outer space is portrayed very authentically and smartly, and although the pacing would lose a race to Professor Xavier at times, the ending is so effective, appealing, and visually charming that it successfully clips all of the flaws into a convincing and meaningful system; there aren't many sci-fi films like this. (03/07/2017)

The director takes care and every shot is thought out to the smallest detail. And when you have have acting aces like Jodie Foster, William Fichtner and James Woods, then success is already guaranteed halfway. Robert Zemeckis is a perfect fit for the project with his filmmaking style, as he didn't turn it into a grandiose sci-fi full of space monsters and tons of visual effects, but rather into a clever and intelligent caper, posing a lot of questions and not giving clear answers. The sweet line about the father fits beautifully, and Jodie Foster delivers a captivating performance. Films about extraterrestrial intelligence can be shot in an interesting and engaging way even without direct physical contact with it. And even though I don't like Zemeckis because of his excessive political correctness and academic bootlicking, this film is awesome. (07/03/2007)

Zemeckis' underrated exploration of space, politics, and most importantly, interpersonal relationships, is something I appreciate more and more each day. From a pleasant and fulfilling experience, it escalated into a film that projects itself into various life situations, dangerously frequently. In my eyes, this is Jodie Foster's life role and probably the centerpiece of Zemeckis' journey towards spiritual rebirth (initiated by Jenny in Forrest Gump and concluded by Cast Away's Chuck). That journey was terribly long and yet completely simple. (06/03/2008)

A pleasant sci-fi film that managed to arouse in me an acute and impatient curiosity to know what would happen next, what kind of truths about alien civilisations would be revealed (this is something that the mythology episodes of X-Files manage to do regularly). Pity that weird and long ending. (06/23/2011)