Smart, Cerebral, Emotionally Affecting and Fascinating

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2016)

A thought occurred to me while I was watching Arrival, the latest in a long tradition of alien-invasion films. While basking in the film's visual splendor and wrapping my head around it's multitude of character detail and narrative ebbs and flows a voice murmured; "this is why you go to the movies." How a movie of such unabashed intelligence and subtlety managed to get made today is beyond me, but for those in dire need to reaffirm their belief in unity and the angels of our better nature, look no further than Arrival. To put it bluntly, this movie is a marvel.
The film begins with twelve alien spacecrafts appearing as if out of thin air above various places around the globe. In response, the United States government dispatches a research team headed by Colonel Weber (Whitaker) and experts Louise Banks (Adams) and Ian Donnelly (Renner) to investigate one of the landing sights in rural Montana. The mission: find out what do they want? Why are they here?
Immediately we're brought into the head space of Louise Banks, a preeminent linguist, charged with communicating with the alien race. The creatures - always presented in a white fog and separated by glass, seem to lack verbal communication. What they do have is a written language which they scrawl across the glass in circular patterns for Louise to decipher and understand. "You approach language like a mathematician," says Ian in a moment of admiration. Indeed, she solves the various puzzles embedded in their language with considerable efficiency, all while shes being haunted by bitter personal memories and visions.
Throughout her illustrious career Amy Adams has always managed to find muted stoicism and fascinating truths in her characters. Starting as a bit of an opaque audience conduit, Louise slowly reveals herself as the keenest mind among her peers. She drinks it all in, every physics bending moment and every bureaucratic setback; considers her options and makes the wisest choice. All the while, we as the audience are right there with her, hanging onto every understated modulation of her voice, hoping that her reasoned arguments will win the day.
And she has a lot to go up against. As she struggles to learn the visitors' purpose, research teams across the globe argue among themselves, coaxing government and military brass closer towards war. Even members of her own unit begin to fear the worst when the creatures begin to use the word "weapon" in their parlance. At one point we're given a literal time-clock which may not be as white- knuckling as the border shootout in Sicario (2015), but nevertheless keeps us glued to our seats. A nearly impossible task when considering the film's plot is essentially "let's sit down and talk it out."
Arrival draws immediate comparisons to Contact (1997) and Interstellar (2014) which become all the more apparent when the third act reveal flips the narrative upside down. I dare not ruin the big plot twist lest to say unlike those other films, Arrival doesn't contort itself to appear smart. It simply is smart, trading in half-realized notions of physics into real questions about how we communicate and how that communication can wire our thinking. In so doing the film becomes a foolproof and unique sci-fi chamber piece that is simultaneously intimate and epic while leaving audiences with plenty to talk about afterward.
Much of that dichotomy is molded by director Denis Villeneuve whose discipline, attention to detail, symbolism and lighting can be best compared to David Fincher. While many directors may try to clutter the tale with eye-popping visuals, Villeneuve realizes that he can create a sense of grandeur with simple geometric shapes and color choice. Yet what sets Arrival apart from David Fincher films (or for that matter any of Villeneuve's other films) is its cautious optimism. If "cinema is a tool to explore our shadows," then Villeneuve seems to be saying underneath all that darkness there is still a sense of communion; a solace in knowing we all share in anger and grief as we do happiness and awe.
Arrival is a smart, cerebral, emotionally affecting and fascinating sci-fi film whose grandeur demands to be seen on the big screen. The acting across the board is fabulous with Amy Adams once again turning in a masterful performance worthy of recognition. The direction and the story are nearly flawless in their construction and execution. Not a single frame is wasted nor a single plot thread left un-sewn into this mind-melter of a movie. Watch it; then watch it twice.