Moving and intelligent

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2018)

I'm staggered that a good number of people have seen fit to rate this movie as a 1 star offering, and feel sorry for them that they got so little out of the film. Just because a sci fi movie doesn't offer up interplanetary war, goggle-eyed green aliens, laser guns and space ships that can turn a profit in lego sales does not make it dull!
This is a thought provoking film richly deserving of a second viewing and offers a welcome alternative to the regular, formulaic star wars type sci fi offerings. If it's a movie 'for the rest of us' then so be it!
It has it's flaws of course - the actions of the rebellious soldiers is a little hard to believe, and the breakdown of trust among nations and proposed aggression from the Chinese - while believable given the daft world we live in - is rather underdeveloped. But all the film's faults are only faults if you lose sight of the fact that this is a story about Louise. It is Louise, her life, and the decision she must make about her daughter that is the film's focus, not the aliens, space ships, guns or governments. That, presumably, is why those aspects of the story are a little lightweight - to make more room for Louise's story.
The film does play deliberate and clever tricks with what is past, present and future. I'm not very good at understanding the 'wibbley wobbley timey wimey' stuff (most episodes of Dr Who leave me confused enough!), so I was not surprised that I didn't quite get the film on first viewing. But it left me with questions I needed answering, and the answers were there on second viewing. As too was a good deal more emotion and involvement. Watching it for a second time, having twigged the correct order of things and what was coming in Louise's life decision, I found the film deeply engaging and emotional. For example I appreciated much more the beautiful filming of Louise with her daughter Hannah, and I was fully in tune with the unfolding of the story. I rather like the fact that I needed to visit the film twice to fully grasp it, as ultimately that proved much more rewarding.
If you're looking for a good old fashioned western-in-space shoot-em-up film this will certainly let you down. Get something trashy, predictable and shallow like like Independence Day on DVD instead. But if you want to watch an intelligent film about a mother's love for her daughter (with some aliens thrown in for decoration) then this might just do it for you. A do watch it twice :)