The Aliens Are Here. Now what?

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2016)

Thought provoking? Certainly. Deliberately paced and quiet in its intensity? Absolutely. In the end, though, "Arrival" is about perception. How we relate to the reality around us, and how we interact with others is defined by our view of existence. Perception is the foundation upon which communication rests. We cannot understand someone else when their perspective is foreign to us. For example, I'm an American. When I talk about aspects of our society that are uniquely ours, those with no experience with those aspects simply won't understand what is really meant if I say that "Dave stole 2nd base." A person with no exposure to the sport of baseball would think that Dave was a thief. Imagine, then, how would we learn to communicate with extra terrestrial beings who have absolutely no relationships with those things that are a part of the human experience? How to work around the differences in perception between homo sapiens and none terrestrial alien visitors lies at the heart of "Arrival."
In the film, Amy Adams stars in the role of a world class linguist, Dr. Louise Banks. Jeremy Renner co-stars as physicist Dr. Ian Donnely. The two are tasked by the military to figure out how to communicate with aliens who've come to Earth, specifically to Montana and 11 other locations around the globe. All the countries where the aliens have appeared work simultaneously to decipher the alien language, but it is Dr. Banks who makes the most progress as the film moves along. I don't want to say anything more about the plot of the film, as to do so would give away those things that should come as a surprise to viewers.
The film is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed the 2015 film "Sicarro" among others. Besides Adams and Renner, other featured players in the film include Forest Whitaker (as Colonel Weber) and Tzi Ma (as Chinese general Shang). "Arrival" is based on a short literary work by Ted Chiang called "Story of Your Life". I have not read the story so cannot compare it with film.
"Arrival" is one of those movies that asks questions that apply not only to what would really happen if aliens came here, but how such a visitation might actually change the world in a remarkable and profound manner. In "Arrival," though, there are more questions than answers. The reason for that is to make sure the audience tries to answer those questions for themselves. It is only through our own reflection that we truly find any answers that have meaning, after all.