Arrival Review
Although I’m a bit late on the arrival of my Arrival review, I figured I would resurrect this unpublished assessment in light of the film’s slew of Oscar nominations. If you want to buy tickets for Arrival hoping it’s going to be a big, dumb alien invasion movie with lots of things exploding, then go spend your money on something else. But if intelligent science-fiction with a human story at its heart is your thing, then I urge you to give this movie a go if you can still find a screening.
The film follows Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist approached by the military as a consultant after twelve alien spaceships land seemingly at random around the world. Along with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Louise journeys to Montana to help lead a team of scientists seeking to learn about the extraterrestrial visitors. Unlike the aliens typically trotted out by Hollywood, the creatures featured in Arrival look like nothing human, instead resembling something closer to a giant squid. Indeed, the scientists aren’t sure the beings are even intelligent, to say nothing of how to communicate with them.
The scenes where Louise and Ian study the mysterious visitors are masterful bits of cinema. For much of the film, the humans remain separated from the aliens by a gigantic clear screen, who appear as vague silhouettes floating in a mist-filled habitat. These scenes look and feel very much like a study of sea creatures at an aquarium—although in this case, the creatures behind the glass possess an intellect that far transcends our own.
Eventually the scientists make a breakthrough, and we are treated to a captivating linguistics lesson that feels realistic (probably because it is—apparently the filmmakers consulted with academic linguists). Along the way the film attempts to answer a fascinating question in an original way: if you knew in advance how your entire life would turn out, would you still make the same decisions? I won’t spoil the ending, but the story doe come together nicely for a satisfying, unpredictable conclusion that doesn’t totally confuse us.
Perhaps the only sequence that feels out of place is Louise’s final meeting with the aliens. The rest of the movie created a sense of adventure and scientific discovery, but this scene came across as pretty corny. Shortly thereafter the movie also strays a bit into the “rogue leader of a foreign country we don’t like” trope, which also seems inappropriate for a film that strives to deliver an original experience. I suppose the movie needed this plot point to create tension, but would governments of important countries actually react so irrationally in the event of an alien landing? I tend to think not. But these are minor nitpicks that don’t take us away from the movie.
In two weeks, Arrival will compete in eight Oscar categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. Aside from technical awards, I don’t expect the movie to actually win. Still, I’m glad to see a science-fiction film receive acknowledgement from the venerable Academy. Overall the film does a fantastic job of making the plot feel like it could really happen, and I left the theater thinking that Arrival probably comes close to how an actual alien landing would unfold. The aliens don’t look like us, and we don’t see total panic in the streets or lots of death and destruction. In the mold of classic science-fiction, Arrival brings us an intelligent depiction of fantastic events that nonetheless remains grounded with a very human story.
