Contact touches on a number of important themes: God/atheism/science, extraterrestrial life, loss of a parent, love (for the wrong person), global-scale efforts, and the frustration a rational person can experience when they are deprived of proof and brought at the same level with mystics.

That was the frustrated element of the film for me: Jodie Foster has gone through an implausible experience of which she had first-hand experience but no proof. Forced to prove her experience in front of an examination committee, she had to admit that the only grounds on which she could demand acceptance was faith. At the end of the movie, however, proof did appear, but Jodie was left unaware of it. For that reason, I’d rate the movie 8/10 instead of 9/10.