Think "Solaris" or "Contact," not "War of the Worlds" or "Independence Day"

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2017)

Smart and visually arresting science fiction tale about earth's first contact with aliens. Mysterious floating monoliths appear around the world and linguist Amy Adams, with help of physicist Jeremy Renner, work with the government to try and communicate with the aliens amid global fears and international political tensions. This story is more "Close Encounters" and "Contact" than "Independence Day" or "War of the Worlds," where the main focus of the story is on how to communicate with the aliens, while reassuring the military brass, primarily Forrest Whittaker, that everything is okay and they don't have to attack. This tension of whether they can successfully communicate and avert a conflict with this new species (and whether other countries around the world might tip off an interstellar as well) makes for good ticking time bomb of dramatic tension, but it's really Adams who give the film an emotional human center, desperately wanting to connect with to these advances creatures, while at the same time is haunted by visions of her daughter. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, who's next project was the new Blade Runner film, brings a strong visual style to the proceeding, but never in a way that is distracting to the story or style for the sake of style. My only complaint about the film is that it does move at a rather glacial pace, though in the end, the film does deliver with a terrific mind-bending of an ending, that makes the wait well worth it. Overall, "Arrival" is not a film for anyone wanting slam-bang science fiction, but is great if you're in the mood for something along the lines of "Solaris" or "Moon."