Tug of war between science and religion

Mainstream film that delivers a sense that we\'re just a small speck in the grand scheme of things.

This is the movie that at one stage George Miller was all set to direct - George pulled from the film and it was Robert Zemeckis who ultimately took over the reins. Developed over many years from the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Carl Sagan, the film features Jodie Foster as Ellie Arroway, a young woman orphaned quite early in life, for whom the search for contact with extra- terrestrial life has perhaps a greater significance than for other people. She becomes a top scientist, fighting establishment scepticism to raise funds for her project, with unexpected financial help coming from the reclusive mogul Hadden, played by John Hurt. Emotional support comes from her team and from her occasional encounters with Palmer Joss - Matthew McConaughey - a respected religious scholar who regards technology with some misgivings...Contact is quite an achievement in a way - it`s a mainstream hollywood film that has as its theme the tug of war between science and religion in the new frontiers of technology.... but if anyone could carry a film with such heavy baggage I guess it`s Jodie Foster... she brings an intensity, a passion and a strange purity to Ellie that gives the film its core strength. Matthew McConaughey seems, in comparison, a construct - and not a very convincing one. James Woods, Tom Skerritt, David Morse and William Fichtner also feature solidly in supporting roles, but what`s terrific about the film is that Zemeckis, particularly with the opening sequence, brings a sense of what the film is trying to convey - that we`re just a small speck in the grand scheme of things, but maybe it`s comforting to think we`re not alone.