When my dad suggested we watch this movie starring-for the first time-Morgan Freeman and John Cusack, I wondered why the title, The Contact, seemed so unfamiliar to me. Having just checked the IMDb entry, I found out it was a direct-to-DVD entry here in the U.S. Watching this I can see why with director Bruce Beresford trying to make this both a drama and a thriller and succeeding in neither. In fact, I think I would have preferred if Freeman's storyline of planning a hit with his men had been taken further with Cusack being an agent hired to take him down instead of him being a school coach with a drug-taking son who accidentally encounters Freeman being handcuffed to the agent he just shot in a forest. Oh, their exchanges aren't too bad but after that I wondered when the real fireworks would begin. What tension there is between Freeman's agents, the police, and the FBI agents is pretty entertaining but that scene near the end with Freeman threatening Alice Krige if Cusack and his son were harmed came completely out of left field for me. What's the relationship, if any, between them anyway? There are some other things here I don't get but I don't want to discuss them here. In summation, if you're a fan of both Cusack and Freeman, The Contract is worth a look but nothing else.