A fresh look at a genre we know well

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2016)

Director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario - 2015) provides a new look at the "alien" film, giving both a new space craft to marvel and explore, new alien sounds, and a different kind of creature to interact with. For these reasons alone, the film is a success. However, with a complicated screenplay by Eric Heisserer (based on a short story by Ted Chiang), it is the backstory that continually gets in the way of an otherwise intriguing viewing experience. Colonel Weber (Forrest Whitaker) calls in linguist Amy Adams (exceptionally terrific here) and Scientist Jeremy Renner (playing second fiddle to Adams) to decode the alien chat. All is well and exciting until Adams starts having flashbacks/forwards (I couldn't tell) that somehow relate to the story and hold the secret to the world not falling into despair. When the film ended, I couldn't help but wonder "what happen"? Music is at times predictable Sci-Fi (Jóhann Jóhannsson), yet it is equally calming and helps move the mystery of the experience along nicely. Cinematography, especially inside the spacecraft, is terrific by Bradford Young. You'll probably read that "Arrival" is the "Close Encounters" of our day and/or that the film is Stanley Kubrick oriented. Well I say, it's just another alien film that manages to provide a fresh look at a genre we know well.