Challenging film, with great performance by Adams; most worthwhile

Rating: 9/10 (6 December 2016)

Louise (Amy Adams) is a professor of linguistics and very well respected. In fact, when the US Army needed some translation of Farsi, she did the task in no time. Yet, it appears she has recently lost her only child, a daughter named Hannah, and the grief is still showing. One day, twelve alien spaceships land on earth, very scattered between the continents. As everyone is apprehensive about their purpose, including those at the university, classes are cancelled indefinitely. Yet, an army officer, Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) shows up at Louise's office once more. With him is a recording of the aliens' language and he wants a translation. Whoa. Telling him she would need much more time and additional tapes, the colonel takes Louise to the spaceship that is in Montana. It is there that she meets an astrophysicist, Ian (Jeremy Renner) and the rest of the crew. Weber informs Louise and Ian that every day, a door of the ship opens for a few hours and they are face to face with the aliens, a many legged being. Thus, Louise and Ian will be front and center in finding a way to communicate with the aliens and, more importantly, find out if they come in peace or destruction. After trying to interpret the whale like sounds, Louise gets another idea. Perhaps they could talk via written language so she brings in a dry erase board. IT WORKS! The aliens are soon making their own circular language patterns. But, as they still need to be decoded completely, will Louise succeed before the rest of the world goes into attack mode? In addition, why is she having strange dreams about her daughter at various stages of her life? This exceptionally challenging and intelligent film is a mind-blower. With nary a light saber in sight, its a fearful yet enchanting meeting of two planetary species. The three main cast members, Adams, Renner and Whitaker, are truly wonderful, especially Adams, who owns the movie. It is her determination, smarts, and empathy that contributes to the search for meaning. Then, too, the alien ships and their beings are wonderfully imaginative, in particular the written alien language. Even so, the ending has to be pondered, as it is deliberately vague. But, for all thoughtful movie fans, Arrival is an immense journey that everyone should take.