Year: 2016
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Heptapods Abbott and Costello
Tagline: Why are they here?
Synopsis: When 12 alien spacecraft appear around the globe, linguist Louise Banks is recruited to learn the aliens' intentions.
Tagline: Why are they here?
Synopsis: When 12 alien spacecraft appear around the globe, linguist Louise Banks is recruited to learn the aliens' intentions.
Review
Alien movies aren't normally my thing, so Arrival wasn't on my radar until the reviews started coming in and I noticed how rave they were. It sounded like the film was more science fiction than alien invasion movie. So, I gave it a try. I'm very glad I did.
Arrival isn't a movie about aliens. It's a movie about humanity. It's also a movie about life and death, love and loss. It's a movie about time. And it's a movie about linguistics. Aliens just happen to be the catalyst to all that happens.
Throughout the film, Louise is tasked with teaching English to the two aliens in the Montana pod (one of twelve around the world). Speaking between the two species is impossible. But they can use writing. The point of the endeavor is to be able to ask the aliens their purpose in coming to Earth. Assisting in this task is theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly. He's the one who dubs the heptapods (they have seven tentacles) Abbott and Costello.
Arrival is a slow-burn kind of film. It's intense, but on a simmering level, not a boiling one. It's also very cerebral. This is thinking sci-fi, not blasting away at aliens sci-fi. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, which can be a little confusing at times. But then that is the point, and it works within the film. Time does not exist for the heptapods, in their existence or in their language. As she learns their language, Louise finds that her own perception of time changes.
While the rest of the cast do a good job in their respective roles, the film is carried by Amy Adams' portrayal of Louise. She does an excellent job. Louise comes across as a very real, very relatable woman. She's brilliant and brave, but clearly swimming in deep water trying to keep her head up.
The film has a certain hopefulness about it. But it is also very melancholy: from Louise's traumatic life, to the stark simplicity of the heptapods' ships and forms, to the muted colors of the cinematography, to the haunting soundtrack. They all mesh perfectly to create a uniform look and feel to Arrival. One song in particular that is used is Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight." It was not written for the film, but it might as well have been because it fits so well.
As much as I enjoyed the film, Arrival is not without flaws. Whenever writers start messing with that whole "timey wimey" stuff, things are bound to get complicated and not entirely work when looked at under a microscope. The film does a good job overall of explaining its own internal science.
While the film seems to be trying for a hopeful melancholy, I was also left feeling a lot of cynicism regarding humanity. The film focuses primarily on Louise, Ian, and the few military and CIA personnel working with them. But newscasts and dialogue reveal what is going on in the rest of the world: riots, looting, fear-mongering, government crackdown, threats, and a spreading disunity and lack of trust among and within nations. According to the movie, humanity as a whole does not react well to alien invasion. (Given current events, it's far too easy to carry that cynicism into the real world.)
Arrival is a clean film. No sex. No real on screen violence. The only swearing was one very deliberately placed f-bomb. (Seriously? We didn't need that.) But it is intense.
Throughout Arrival I was (mostly) able to suspend my disbelief and accept all that was presented to me. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film. It kept my attention riveted. If you want a welcome relief from the explosions-laden blockbusters or you want a slow-burn, thinking movie, Arrival is for you.
*** Spoiler Section ***
One of the things that has gnawed at me the most about Arrival is the captain who goes rogue and sets of the explosion. I get that it was a somewhat necessary plot point to move the story forward and bring some escalation. But it felt so trite in an otherwise fresh film. And it was obvious. The first pausing shot of the captain's troubled face and I knew we couldn't trust him and he was going to do something stupid. It was a weak part for me.
Also, while the dematerializing spacecrafts were interesting, they were a bit anticlimactic.
While I enjoyed the film, it left me with a number of questions. Did Abbott know when he came to Earth that he would die? If China (or Russia) had fired on the spacecraft, would the missiles have had any effect? Why did Louise never see any of her future beyond Hannah's death? (And is Louise really going to age that well?) Is she still going to tell Ian about Hannah's disease, even though she knows how he'll react? Is he really going to completely abandon is family like that? (Seriously, that left me not liking Ian very much by the end, further adding to the film's cynical feel.)
Lastly, as cynical as the film seems to be about how some of humanity deals with things, what are the socio-political ramifications of people being able to learn heptapodese and changing their perception of time? Is the language going to turn out to be a weapon after all?
Arrival isn't a movie about aliens. It's a movie about humanity. It's also a movie about life and death, love and loss. It's a movie about time. And it's a movie about linguistics. Aliens just happen to be the catalyst to all that happens.
Throughout the film, Louise is tasked with teaching English to the two aliens in the Montana pod (one of twelve around the world). Speaking between the two species is impossible. But they can use writing. The point of the endeavor is to be able to ask the aliens their purpose in coming to Earth. Assisting in this task is theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly. He's the one who dubs the heptapods (they have seven tentacles) Abbott and Costello.
Arrival is a slow-burn kind of film. It's intense, but on a simmering level, not a boiling one. It's also very cerebral. This is thinking sci-fi, not blasting away at aliens sci-fi. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, which can be a little confusing at times. But then that is the point, and it works within the film. Time does not exist for the heptapods, in their existence or in their language. As she learns their language, Louise finds that her own perception of time changes.
While the rest of the cast do a good job in their respective roles, the film is carried by Amy Adams' portrayal of Louise. She does an excellent job. Louise comes across as a very real, very relatable woman. She's brilliant and brave, but clearly swimming in deep water trying to keep her head up.
The film has a certain hopefulness about it. But it is also very melancholy: from Louise's traumatic life, to the stark simplicity of the heptapods' ships and forms, to the muted colors of the cinematography, to the haunting soundtrack. They all mesh perfectly to create a uniform look and feel to Arrival. One song in particular that is used is Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight." It was not written for the film, but it might as well have been because it fits so well.
As much as I enjoyed the film, Arrival is not without flaws. Whenever writers start messing with that whole "timey wimey" stuff, things are bound to get complicated and not entirely work when looked at under a microscope. The film does a good job overall of explaining its own internal science.
While the film seems to be trying for a hopeful melancholy, I was also left feeling a lot of cynicism regarding humanity. The film focuses primarily on Louise, Ian, and the few military and CIA personnel working with them. But newscasts and dialogue reveal what is going on in the rest of the world: riots, looting, fear-mongering, government crackdown, threats, and a spreading disunity and lack of trust among and within nations. According to the movie, humanity as a whole does not react well to alien invasion. (Given current events, it's far too easy to carry that cynicism into the real world.)
Arrival is a clean film. No sex. No real on screen violence. The only swearing was one very deliberately placed f-bomb. (Seriously? We didn't need that.) But it is intense.
Throughout Arrival I was (mostly) able to suspend my disbelief and accept all that was presented to me. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film. It kept my attention riveted. If you want a welcome relief from the explosions-laden blockbusters or you want a slow-burn, thinking movie, Arrival is for you.
*** Spoiler Section ***
One of the things that has gnawed at me the most about Arrival is the captain who goes rogue and sets of the explosion. I get that it was a somewhat necessary plot point to move the story forward and bring some escalation. But it felt so trite in an otherwise fresh film. And it was obvious. The first pausing shot of the captain's troubled face and I knew we couldn't trust him and he was going to do something stupid. It was a weak part for me.
Also, while the dematerializing spacecrafts were interesting, they were a bit anticlimactic.
While I enjoyed the film, it left me with a number of questions. Did Abbott know when he came to Earth that he would die? If China (or Russia) had fired on the spacecraft, would the missiles have had any effect? Why did Louise never see any of her future beyond Hannah's death? (And is Louise really going to age that well?) Is she still going to tell Ian about Hannah's disease, even though she knows how he'll react? Is he really going to completely abandon is family like that? (Seriously, that left me not liking Ian very much by the end, further adding to the film's cynical feel.)
Lastly, as cynical as the film seems to be about how some of humanity deals with things, what are the socio-political ramifications of people being able to learn heptapodese and changing their perception of time? Is the language going to turn out to be a weapon after all?
Quotable Quotes
- "How about we just talk to them before throwing math problems at them?" -- Louise to Ian
- "You know, you approach language like a mathematician." "I'll take that as a compliment." -- Ian and Louise
- "That just happened." -- Ian, upon experiencing the gravity shift in the spacecraft
ISFS
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