Not quite my taste

Rating: 7/10 (27 February 2017)

I really wanted to love Arrival. I'm a fan of so called "smart" sci-fi, stuff that manages to bend out of this world stuff with beauty. Arrival was one of those movies that seemed to tick all the boxes (female led, prestige cast and crew) but I found myself a bit let down.
The movie is about Louise Banks, a university professor of languages who we first meet in the opening frames of the movie as her she takes care of and raises her young daughter, only to lose her when she is still very young. We then see Louise at her job when 12 alien space ships land at an assortment of random locations around the world. Because of some earlier work she did translating for the military, Louise ends up getting assigned a job helping the army translate and talk to the aliens (quickly dubbed heptapods). Louise and her partner Ian end up becoming close to the two heptapods that try to communicate with them, and they struggle to figure out what to say and how to say it before the trigger happy government attacks the aliens and starts a war they might not win.
There's a lot to admire about Arrival. Amy Adams is great here as Louise (sadly snubbed for an Oscar despite the film receiving multiple nominations). The tech work is also very good. This isn't a movie that goes for intensely gorgeous visuals, but there is still eye-candy in the form of the written version of the alien language.
The central story and the "twist" at the centre of it is really great too, and it's only something that will enrich the film in multiple viewings. And yet despite the intimate story there was something about the film that just didn't work for me, primarily the nitty gritty details of the script. Despite the elegant structure and ideas there's some dialogue that's too quippy and on the nose and there's this whole section in the middle that is just five minutes of information dropping voice-over over montage. It's a weirdly lazy technique for a film that sweats the details. There's also a relationship that ends up being central to the ending and the plot that I never quite bought and doesn't feel organic at all.
Your mileage may vary. While I never quite succeeded in feeling that emotional connection that would have elevated the film from good to excellent I can see from the ratings and reviews that others just don't have that problem.