"Tell me a story."

It's one of the oldest requests. We asked it as children, and our children ask it of us, and we ask it of one another. "Tell me a story."

We marvel at "King Kong." We're enthralled at seeing the "Lord of the Rings." We're mesmerized at the sweep of "Star Wars." "Sky Captain," "Final Fantasy," and "Sin City" head into new realms. And who will forget, "Who Shot Roger Rabbit?"

Yet, at some point, all these projects were screenplays, or at least treatments. There was a story.

I was reminded of this as I listened to the commentaries of Jodie Foster and Robert Zemeckis each give their running account in the background as I watched "Contact" on DVD.

For Foster - the star - it was mainly about the story. For Zemeckis, it was more complicated, or as the top-level guy, Zemeckis had a wider range of responsibilities, but I could not help but notice how devoted he was to the technical aspects of the film. Perhaps he let Foster take care of the story and rather than be redundant, he gave his spin on what magic was done during the production.

And yet, as I look at the latest in a series of box office offerings, special effects are playing more of a role. To be sure, it is cost-effective to paint things out. For example, in "The Untouchables," a street scene required that all window air conditioners be removed from an exterior shot so that the scene would look like the late 1920s and not the late 1980s. No longer would a film company have to go door-to-door and incur the expense of removing and replacing the offending window units.

Special effects, like spice or salt, are best when they enhance rather than overwhelm the scene - in effect, upstaging the actors.

Is "Hamlet" a better play if the Ghost (of Hamlet's father) is made especially gruesome? At what point do we stop listening to the dialog, only to be swept along by a spook house or "Space Mountain" sort of experience?

Laura and I chatted about this a bit before Staff Meeting. I am "borrowing" her idea and putting it into entirely my words, but it goes like this: What if the last three Star Wars episodes had to be shot using the same special effects of the first three episodes?

Would the human drama come out better? Would there be more tension? How is it that some fantastic actors gave such wooden performances. Ian McDiarmid ("The Emperor") alone stands out.

The special effects don't have to be all that special. Let me conclude by turning back to the film "Contact," and the scene that did it for me. Our hero, Ellie Arroway, is listening to "the array," hoping to find intelligent life on other planets. She is alone, in the late evening, out in the field of dishes (dreams) listening to "outer space." Suddenly there is a crackling through the headphone. The camera zooms in on just her eyes.

Sentimental me, I am always moved to tears at this scene. The "girl scientist" has the "eureka!" moment. She has seen something that has escaped everyone else's notice.

The special effects show "the array" at night in the background, but the tension for me is over the top. And what's happening? She races off in a car to the center building. Her colleagues simply waken sleeping computers. No scene before, or after, compares with this moment.

This is the story - a scientist who is scoffed at makes the greatest discovery of the century. We are not alone, There is intelligent life on other planets.

Alas, that too many films, so enamored with special effects and not story, forget there is intelligent life on this one as well.

• katherine's blog
•