It's drama, with a Sci-Fi backdrop

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2018)

If you want to see some great Sci-Fi about a linguist and a scientist attempting to communicate with aliens...that movie hasn't been made yet.
***spoilers begin here***
This movie is simply about a woman who learns that her future daughter will die early of cancer as a teen. Even knowing this, she chooses to have her daughter anyway. The times they shared together were worth the pain and loss yet to come.
The backdrop of aliens, language, science and time are simply a set up for allowing the woman to see the future. Nothing more.
If the movie were to be rated as a Sci-Fi film it would receive poor ratings - as evidenced by reviews saying as much. This point is where the marketers of the movie missed the mark.
There are a few Science Fiction elements and some moments that are interesting in that aspect, but the science of the movie is too...fictional. The actions of the world-wide scientists and leaders is not believable and the role of Renner as a scientist is underutilized (dare say...not utilized at all). The linguistic methods of deciphering the language are glossed over and the science behind the methods not even mentioned.
But again, this isn't really Sci-Fi. Were the movie in a different setting away from Aliens Arriving on Earth, there would be fewer criticisms.
Reviewing the movie as a drama about the decisions of a future mother-to-be gives a better representation of the film's content.
In that aspect, it is a difficult, heart-wrenching drama that makes the viewer question the judgment of the character since she knew what the outcome would be.
Was the daughter being born a requirement for the future to work out correctly 3000 years from then? The movies suggests not.
Then was Adam's character self-serving to have the child even though the child would die an early death through disease?
Would the child prefer to have lived even knowing her own future?
Renner's character leaves the family when he finds out Adams knew the daughter would die. He tells her that "She made the wrong decision."
It's up to the viewer to choose what is right.