Not really science fiction . . .

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2018)

But rather, a meditation on communication - how language divides as well as unites us, and how it can shape our perception of time and reality. The film also leaves us with a question for ourselves, would we choose to forego the joy of an experience if we knew for certain ahead of time that it would end in great pain.
Early in the film, a linguist played by Amy Adams, writes on a white board the sentence, "What is your purpose for coming here?" And then proceeds to explain why even such a simple question can't be can't be posed to newly arrived heptapod aliens, who's verbal language sounds a bit like whale song.
Unlike any other film I can remember that deals with humans first encountering intelligent extraterrestrials, it presents what would likely be the most realistic scenario for such an event - that is, being aliens to each other the gap between us that we'd need to bridge to establish any communication would be enormous. First, we would need to teach each other how to "speak".
Throughout the film, Adams' character experiences what we at first believe are flashbacks about a daughter she lost at a young age to a genetic disease. However, we eventually learn they are flash forwards, since as she begins to learn the alien language (which is based on a non-linear concept of time) she begins to think as they do, becoming a cognitive time traveler who can see the future and the past. The child we at first think she remembers losing, she will choose to have in the future.
The film unfolds like a dream and its visuals have a dreamlike quality with very little nuts and bolts technology to be seen. These aliens seem almost beyond technology, except they they're housed in vessels (are they really space ships?) that provide a livable environment for them on Earth. When they leave, their vessels simply dissolve into mist.