Superb Sci-Fi Metadrama

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2016)

In American education, there has been much emphasis lately on the so-called STEM topics at the expense of the Humanities. We emphasize career-oriented education and neglect education that emphasizes human relationships. *Arrival* is a movie that consciously tries, if not to reverse the power relationship between Science and the Humanities, at least to show the fundamental importance of the latter through contemplating what it sees as the basic tool in human relationships--language.
Of course, Science Fiction is the perfect genre for such an endeavor because its very name is a combination of the Sciences and the Humanities. If we posit that the strength of the Sciences is their predictive value (for example, repeated experiments lead to technology that can predict that an airplane will fly under certain physical conditions), *Arrival* shows that the Humanities have a predictive power of their own that has to do with relationships. The Fiction part of Science Fiction can predict, in a less formal and less easily understood way than Science predicts things, how relationships will function.
Specifically, the film's protagonist, Louise Banks, a professor of linguistics played very sensitively by Amy Adams, uses her skill in language to chart a course through the complexities of relationships on all the levels a human might experience, from confronting the absolute other of an alien species to political relationships between different countries to her own relationship with her scientist husband and the daughter they create. In doing so, Louise becomes a metadramatic surrogate (metadrama is drama that reflects on itself as drama-- think Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage) for the creator of *Arrival* itself and a champion for the mysterious predictive power of Fiction in general.
It does all of the above, as it must do to be effective, in a humanly compelling story conveyed through wonderful performances. That is what makes *Arrival* a great movie!