Villeneuve's complex masterpiece on the essence of Humanity and Aliens

Rating: 10/10 (2 December 2016)

Arrival marks a significant evolution in the treatment of Aliens in cinema, eschewing the cheap theatrics of fantasy films or easy projections of murderous intent on all extra-terrestrial life forms started by Ridley Scott's Alien trilogy. The film is based on Ted Chiang's Story of your life but Denis Villeneuve's remarkable vision has significantly enhanced the visual and narrative impact of this story. It starts with the mysterious appearance of enormous bean shaped objects in several locations on earth. Unable to get any meaningful information about the whys and hows of this event, the FBI enlists a linguist, Amy Adams to help in the translation of the cryptic sounds which these seven-footed aliens give out. The story revolves around this communication and what it reveals about humanity as a whole.
Apart from the stunningly melancholic look of the film, highlighting the psychologically bleak state of humanity in general, the film has a singularly haunting theme. Villeneuve is a master of the slow forward moving shot and all his films feature characters whose narrative significance is underscored by their portrayal in these perfect scenes. There are many complex themes treated here, language and conception of space-time being the most important ones. Human language is linear in time and this singular concept makes the non-linear, circular script of the aliens difficult to understand. Our use of the linear script is a reflection of our existence in a frame of time which for us only goes forward. But if this movement can happen both ways, then the language must necessarily be able to reflect that. The prime-riddle of the script Amy Adams has to unlock concerns this reversibility. The psychological impact of our limited language is also shown succinctly. Humans tend to project their desires on inanimate objects all the time. A knife can be a weapon to kill and also a weapon to cut fruits but depending on our desire for either of this, it can be good and evil at the same time. Thus when the Aliens mention weapon, humans interpret that unambiguously as an evil intent, projecting our interpretation of weapon on theirs. Such fundamentals elements of language are explored with great narrative immersion. The last and most important theme is about determinism. Modern day philosophy has over-analyzed this thing to exhaustion and one of the results of this has been the increasingly helpless situation of man to change anything for the better. Because the Aliens can get in and out of time at will, they can view the whole of future from outside of time. Amy Adams is given visions of her future which she does not comprehend at the time. Her understanding of the present comes through her intuitional immersion in her future. The film masterfully balances this manipulation of time without losing the narrative focus on the present. At the end, we are the beginning and the film has completed a circle much like the script of the aliens. The great moment of philosophical insight into determinism and free-will occurs at the end when Amy Adams is asked by her future husband if they want to have a baby. She says yes knowing fully the future of this child. Her answer gives rise to the question, What would have happened if she had said no ? Does fate only work if we give assent to it ? But whether for Amy Adams or for us, the strength to welcome fate knowing it will wrench us is truly worthy of the highest endeavors of Mankind.