Arrival; Great Science Fiction.

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2017)

***Advanced Spoiler Warning (delves right into the plot):***
Arrival takes inspiration from films like Interstellar, Contact and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and makes a grounded tale of alien-human contact and understanding. The film isn't really a hard science fiction film per-say, but it does explore the importance of language; Amy Adams' Louise Banks embodies this importance and the film covers her story and her constant flashbacks of her late daughter. And these flashbacks are actually important to the conclusion of the story.
Louise Banks is brought along by the US Government to communicate with the UFO's inhabitants: these arachnid-like aliens who speak a language that reads both forwards and backwards; they speak a language that transcends all of Earth's tongues and it actually reads time and space. These aliens provide some answers for Louise's struggle as a mother losing her child. It's revealed that because she learns the language by the end of the story that she actually saw the future, and thus it seemed like these 'memories' kept seeping into her thoughts. She hasn't had her daughter yet, she isn't even married yet; and her ability to see the future prevents China's leader from retaliating against the alien threat, thus resolving the story's big problem.
Arrival is clever, and while its overall story may not make logical sense it is nevertheless a smart and thought-provoking piece on the importance of language to human culture.
P.S. It's a shame Adams didn't get so much as an Oscar nomination for her performance. Real shame.