Good movie about our first contact with an extraterrestrial race. Drags in some parts, but was able to hold my attention throughout.

##Space… the final frontier

So, how would aliens actually make contact with Earth? Would
little green men walk out of a ship and declare “Take me to your leader”?
Probably not.

The movie opens with a young girl learning about the stars from her
father. We find out later that her father died when she was 9 and her
mother died during childbirth. She has a personal fantasy that heaven is
out there, and that she’ll somehow be able to get in touch with both of
them some day. She knows its only a fantasy, but the idea is an important
one for the finale of the film.

There’s also another important moment early in the film. She has a one
night stand with a guy (who becomes important later in the movie) and we
find out in their pillow talk a little later that she doesn’t believe in
God.

##Enter: madman

The President’s advisor and head of the NSA is a paranoid man. He thinks
that the reason the aliens have contacted earth is to start an invasion.
Everyone else is pretty balanced in their appraisal of the aliens’
motives. Why would a civilization advanced enough to send the designs for
the transport bother with all the niceties before an invasion if that was
their motive.

##So, is there a God?

One of the central themes of the movie is faith. Is science
really any different than religion? Scientists take it on faith that there
is an explaination, religious folk take it on faith that they already know
the explaination.

At one point, she quizes her lover, a spiritual leader, on how he can
believe in God without proof. He asks her, “Did you love your father?”
“Yes,” she replies. “Prove it.”

Near the end of the movie, this question came into perfect focus. After the
journey (was it really a journey or a hallucination?), she was asked by
the paranoid former NSA director, “So, you just expect us to take it on
faith that you actually went somewhere, when there’s not a single shred of
evidence that you did?” Jodie Fosters character has to reluctantly
confront her own problems with the ideas of religion and God.

##One little nitpick

Near the end of the movie when Jodie Foster’s character flies off through
a wormhole to the other end of the galaxy, it really fealt like a typical
Star Trek copout. “We took this form because we thought you’d be more
comfortable with it,” or some such nonsense. Can you say Q? I knew
that you could 🙂