Arrival
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve.
Written by: Eric Heisserer based on
the short story by Ted Chiang.
Starring: Amy Adams (Dr. Louise
Banks), Jeremy Renner (Ian Donnelly), Forest Whitaker (Colonel Weber), Michael
Stuhlbarg (Agent Halpern), Mark O'Brien (Captain Marks), Abigail Pniowsky (Hannah
- 8 yrs. old), Tzi Ma (General Shang), Jadyn Malone (Hannah - 4 yrs. old), Julia
Scarlett Dan (Hannah - 12 yrs. old), Larry
Day (Deputy Director of the CIA Dan Ryder), Max Walker (Pvt. Miller), Carmela
Nossa Guizzo (Hannah -4 yrs. old), Christian
Jadah (Private Combs), Frank Schorpion (Dr. Kettler).
Spoiler Warning: I’m going to try not to
spoil too much about Arrival in this
review – but I think this is one of those films that works best if you know
nothing about it. Rest assured, it is a great movie – and you should definitely
see it.
Twelve
identical, huge, shell shaped spaceships land on earth – in all different
locations, and no one knows what they hell they are they are for. Once every 18
hours, a door opens, and people are allowed in for a short period of time. They
are escorted to a dark room with a window. There are tentacled creatures on the
other side. Linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) has been put in charge of trying
to communicate with the aliens at the American site – but how do you
communicate with creatures you share nothing in common with? Even if you think
you are getting through to them, how can you be sure?
Arrival
is a sci-fi film about humans first contact with aliens which ends up being a
more inward journey that an outward one. There is little action in the movie –
this isn’t Independence Day or War of the Worlds – but rather a film that is
actually about language – how we communicate with each other. Based on a short
story by Ted Chiang, and directed by Denis Villeneuve – that wonderful French Canadian
director who once against proves just how versatile he can be – Arrival is a
film that toys with the audience – using cinematic language to hide its twists
and turns in plain sight – building to a devastating climax.
Villeneuve’s
last film was the border crossing drug film Sicario – and like that film,
Arrival is also focused on a female protagonist in a male dominated world. In
Sicario, Emily Blunt is gradually backgrounded – she becomes a supporting
character in her own story, but that was precisely the point of the film –
everyone used her, and discarded her when they no longer needed her. Amy Adams’
Louise Banks is different. If you’re a parent, like me, you may find yourself
crying in the first moments of Arrival – as the film shows in a few brief
moments Louise’s life with her daughter Hannah – who we know dies as a teenager
because of some sort of disease. Throughout the film, we will flash to Louise
and Hannah at various stages – their life as mother and daughter providing some
sort of insight that Louise draws on when talking to the aliens. The aliens
have a completely different kind of language – there seems to be little
correlation between what they say, and their writing – the written language is
not linear, but circular, which tells you a lot about them.
Much
of the impact of the film is because of Adams, one of our best actresses,
delivering one of her best performances. When the film opens she is lonely and
alone – a linguistics professor, who spends much of her time by herself. She is
visited by the army in the form of Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) – who wants
her to come with him to the shell in Montana that is making worldwide news. She
is eventually partnered with Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) – a physicist, who
disagrees with her assertion that language is basis for the universe – arguing
science is - the movie doesn’t give him much of a chance to make his case. From
there, the rest of the movie is all about communication and the roadblocks to
it – not just between the humans and the aliens, but between the various
countries – many of whom do not listen to each other in any real way.
Adams
is great in the role. You could accuse the film of being overly sentimental –
like many viewers felt like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar was – but Adams’
performance bucks that trend. While her work is heartbreaking – it never
crosses over into the maudlin. She is a strong character – a woman who decides
to make a leap, knowing the pain that is coming, but does so anyway. Arrival
ends up being a science fiction with a brain, as well as a heart. It doesn’t
overload the film with action – as what normally happens, but is hardly a dry
and emotionless film. Its science fiction film at its finest.
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