Thought-provoking like many in its genre don't even try to be.

Rating: 8/10 (21 November 2016)

Arrival is an alien movie that has very little to do with aliens. Its chiefly about a depressive linguist named Louise who is chosen to attempt a translation between the aliens and the U.S. military. However, I think many audience members will digest this movie with very little remembrance paid to the extra terrestrials. The important events take place in the psyche of Louise, which reveal themselves to us only in the final moments of the film. (Going forward there will be spoilers).
First the bad: There are some irredeemably corny lines (mostly from Jeremy Renner's character) that are significant, they lessen the dramatic tone at critical plot points. There are also some scenes where characters are transparently stilted or behave irrationally. Forrest Whitaker's character, for one, is either understated or entirely dispensable. The acting on the whole is forgettable, but never awful. Adams performs well, though her emotional volume is pretty uniform all the way through - which is not necessarily inappropriate. The story is not exactly about her growth as it is about her accepting her own peculiar mind.
Yet Arrival succeeds in ways that are more important. When the twist comes at the end it suggests several things about Louise and about people in general. For one, our reliance on a linear narrative, or on a narrative-period to give our lives stability, meaning. We ignore obvious clues that the film's prologue is actually its epilogue, mimicking the denial that Louise likely lives with throughout the life of her child who is destine to die.
It speaks to the greed or craving for optimum human experience. Louise, for whom its implied lives a rather muted life (which is ironic) before the alien landing, gets an unprecedented opportunity to talk with the aliens. Then they reveal to Louise her gift, to see into the future. In that future, she see's she'll have a child - and that child will die in her twenties. Yet she has the child anyway (without telling the father of her premonition). She has the love affair, the celebrity status, the family by the lake, and indeed all this ultimately disintegrates as she knew it would.
Alternatively, or maybe in conjunction with this, her behavior can be explained as follows: Louise realized she had no free will and surrenders her attempt at controlling reality, and thus finds some measure of happiness. Similarly, Louise maybe recognizes that life is hopelessly fragile, futile even, but decides the moments of both breakdown and beauty are still worth experiencing in full.
To summarize: Arrival is thought-provoking in ways many big-budget Sci-Fi's don't even try to be. There are many other strengths in cinematography and sound that make Arrival solid. Enjoy.