The story is simple -- a signal is received by the SETI project (although, for the film they pretend SETI is funded by a private company). At the same time, the military is experimenting with ESP. Is there a connection?
What follows is a typical stuck-in-a-lab-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-whilst-trying-to-piece-together-what-happened type film. We watch as the characters try to decipher what the signal is and how to exploit it.
What I liked about the film is that it is well acted and the script raises it, in the main, above other films of the same genre. The tension builds up quite well.
There are no big surprises about what the signal really is. What I don't like about the film is that it does preach quite a bit (especially at the end).
In short it's a well acted, intelligent, film which raises important issues but it tries to hard too get its own message across.