A Must See in 2016

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2016)

Based on the short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, Arrival is an interesting view on the common sci-fi trope of alien life forms landing on planet Earth. It tells the story of Louise Banks(Amy Adams, A linguist who is entrusted with the task of trying to communicate with the visitors, at least the ones located in the United States. Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly(Jeremy Renner) Banks must find a way to decode a language vastly different from ours, and figure out why these "Shells" have come here.
Lets start with the cast. While a bit top heavy those at the top are all such good actors you don't have to worry about the rest. Amy Adams is a true blue leading lady. She commands this role perfectly and turns in one of her most impressive performances. Full ranges of emotions and a real truth in her eyes that truly draw you into her character. Jeremy Renner has become one of the most reliable second leads in the business. His character is strong and opinionated, but really plays off Adams performance well and boosts this movie up. Forrest Whittaker plays Colonel Weber, the head of the team involved with the U.S. branch of the Arrival. While almost playing the spiritual villain in the beginning, he really is just a guy who has orders to fill and Mr. Whittaker is able to both keep you on his side, but also not fully trust him.
The writing of Arrival has ups and downs but really it is mostly ups. The plot is fantastic with several moments I did not expect at all. The way that the heavy science portions are explained helps just enough for you to understand why the characters are doing what they are doing, but not spending a large portion of the movie giving complicated linguistics lesson. The way the world reacts and then deals with the arrival is more realistic than I have ever seen before. It felt as if this could happen tomorrow and Arrival would become almost like a documentary. My only problem with the writing is that at times it could be contrived. Some of the dialogue was not perfect but really overall I can let it slide.
All of these things together make a great movie, but in my opinion it is the director Denis Villeneuve who makes all of these parts into one brilliant movie. His previous two movies Prisoners and Sicario were quite a bit darker, and honestly when I saw Arrival was rated PG13 I got a little scared but this guy continues to show he is one of the most talented Directors out there. The tone he sets with Arrival is so strong and pulls you into this world. The pacing of the movie is great and every scene has something to provide. I can say with full confidence that without Villeneuve this movie would have been a whole lot worse, even with everything it has going for it.
Arrival can be slow at times but it is really in the humanity of this movie that gets you sucked into it. The extraterrestrials add some wonder and fear into Arrival but the way we respond to them and the importance of some of the things we as humans have forgotten. I don't think it is any coincidence that Arrival was released the same week that we had a historic election, and above all the politics and who won or lost Arrival has a statement to make about the way we treat each other. I don't want to give too much away but I implore people who are feeling a strong emotion this week on either side of the ticket to see Arrival. I think humanity is about more than all of these petty disagreements and I believe Arrival properly portrays this sentiment.