Arrival - "An Instant Sci-Fi Classic" (Film Review)

Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in Paramount Pictures', Arrival (2016)

This Oscar® season I managed to watch eight of the ten nominated films before the Academy Awards® aired, but the two I had not gotten around to watching in time were, Arrival and Hidden Figures. Having finally watched Arrival I must say that I was impressed by the film's ability to provide a refreshing take on the extra-terrestrial theme and it quickly topped my list of favorite films of 2016.

Director, Denis Villeneuve, had won me over in 2013 with his suspense-thriller, Prisoners, so I was hopeful that I'd be equally pleased with his newest project. The film opens with a gut-wrenching montage, narrated by Amy Adams. It then transitions into the premise of the film; aliens have arrived. What transpires thereafter is an attempt to acquire the answer to, "What is your purpose on Earth?" from these visitors.

Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, a linguistics professor whose expert abilities are sought-after by the government upon the aliens' arrival. The audience learns that this is not the first time Louise has been approached in this regard, as she had previously assisted the government with a translation of communications in Farsi. Surely, then, she is a shoo-in for deciphering alien communications, right? Just go in there, Louise, ask them "what is your purpose on Earth?" and let us know what they respond. Well, it's safe to say that's not how it works and that's not what transpires. Instead, we witness an intricate, scientific approach to how humans would address an alien arrival.

Arrival is a powerful film with Amy Adams delivering one of her best and most emotionally profound performances. The cinematography alone is beautiful, but the film is also well-paced, meticulously unveiling hints to a larger plot that keep the audience intrigued throughout. It addresses many thematically complex issues, which I will address in the spoilers section below. Arrival is definitely one of my favorite films released during this Oscar® season. It's ability to incorporate linguistics into the storyline while ensuring that the scientific aspect of the film is easy to follow for the average viewer, something that Interstellar failed to do, is applauded. Visually, witnessing a take on aliens that differs from the lanky green beings audiences are used to is also refreshing.

Arrival is not only one of the best films of 2016, but will withstand the test of time, joining the rankings of classics like the Alien franchise. Smart, thought-provoking films are few and far between these days. Arrival not only impresses on the Sci-Fi level, but leaves the audience questioning much broader concepts beyond, "what if aliens exist". Having now witnessed the excellence that is Arrival I am one of many who are anxiously anticipating Villeneuve's next very promising film, Blade Runner 2049, set to release in October of this year and starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, the latter reprising his role from the 1982 original.



*SPOILERS*

The film begins with a montage of moments in Louise's personal life with her daughter at various ages. The montage ends with a mournful scene of her daughter falling ill and passing at a young age, and the film transitions to present day. Here and now, Louise is a professor and gets approached about helping to communicate with the alien visitors, with the assistance of Ian Donnelly (played by Jeremy Renner) and team. Louise provides a clear explanation from a linguistics standpoint of how the team must approach the task at hand. She does so by deconstructing the question, "What is your purpose on Earth?" which helps her team and the audience understand the complexity of the undertaking. Little by little, they begin to develop a comprehensible stream of communication with the aliens.

Throughout the film the audience witnesses flashbacks from the montage intro, as well as other memories, which provide Louise with helpful hints about how to proceed with their task. What the film does so masterfully well is playing with the concept of time. The audience learns that the aliens are here because in 3000 year's time they will be in need of assistance from Earth's inhabitants, and have now come to Earth to bestow the gift of their language. However, only Louise is able to master the alien language, thereby being the only person to reap the correlated benefit of perceiving non-linear time (i.e. seeing the future).

The steady reveal of the fact that Louise's flashbacks have, in fact, been flash forwards is one of the more well-executed plot twists I have seen in some time. As an avid fan of the series, Lost, I have a huge appreciation for playing with how the audience perceives time and the utilization of flashbacks and flash forwards. Once the reveal was made I immediately backtracked in my mind, similar to Louise, to make sense of what had transpired. The audience understands that what previously appeared to be memories of Louise's daughter falling ill and passing were experiences yet to come. The film closes with this profound question:

If you could foresee the path that lies ahead, would you take the good with the bad and proceed?

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