Villeneuve delivers again!

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2016)

"Arrival" is a mystery, sci-fi movie, directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed two other critically acclaimed movies I loved watching: "Prisoners" and "Sicario". This time, Villeneuve takes on the subject of extra-terrestrial life, and the communications between humans and aliens from another planet, starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whittaker in the lead cast. I'm not gonna lie, this movie floored me from beginning to end, and I came out from the cinema with satisfying feeling of watching what I think is one of the – if not the – best movie of this year. This movie is one big mystery from start to finish, forcing you to watch and to be amazed and intrigued of the outcome. This movie reminded me of a well-directed Christopher Nolan movie like "the prestige" or "memento", where the mystery is being beautifully resolved at the end. All it needed was some epic music composed by Hans Zimmer, but even that is unnecessary because the music composed for this movie was just as beautiful as well. Amy Adams plays the lead role as a top-skilled linguist, and is being contacted by the military to try interpret and establish communication between the aliens and us. Adams plays excellent in the movie, and now that we are closing in on the Oscar season, Adams could be in for a best leading actor nomination. I am also being told that she plays a good leading role in "Nocturnal animals" that is out now, so if she shouldn't be nominated for "Arrival", maybe she has a second chance with "Nocturnal animals". Jeremy Renner and Forest Whittaker play as supporting characters, who both do a good job. Renner plays as a theoretical physicist, and is not a crucial character for the movies story to work, but he adds humour and plays good along with Adams, so he wasn't a problem for me in the movie at all. Whittaker works great as a Colonel in the military, who is used to guide and tell the audience of the movie what is happening, and to move the plot of the movie forward. In the end, "Arrival" is a beautifully shot movie, that not only examines the communication between extra-terrestrial life and humans, but also the communication between humans themselves and how we seem more alienated with the people we live on earth with than the aliens above us.