Highly intellectual and brilliant film (explanation included)

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2016)

This film is magnificent. It's is a real mind journey and don't be disheartened if you had trouble putting the pieces together immediately. I have included my explanation below.
Like the film Contact, this film examines the realistic questions and conundrums that humans would likely face if we made contact with an alien race. How would we communicate? What would be their purpose?.etc..
So yes - this is not anything like Independence Day. There are no alien craft with green lasers... thank god...
The intellectual aspects of the film are complex and they are handled in just the right way. They don't handhold and overtly explain everything, rather engaging the viewer to think about it and ponder deeps questions well after the film has ended.
A surprisingly grand film, great script, great film making, brilliant acting. Should be given at least an Oscar of two. It has made it into my top 10 favorite films of all times.
****MY EXPLANATION***** You know the expression "you never forget how to ride a bike?" That's because, when you hop on a bike after no doing it for years, your brain draws on memories of how to ride and how to balance from your past.
Well, by learning the alien language, the Louise gradually gained more clear insights into the future. You could call them 'flashforwards' but they are really memories from the future.
We only know time to be linear: past, present and future. You can draw on the past in the present. But in this film, the alien language gives you memories of the future that you can draw upon to use in the present. Yes this does raise a rather curious "time" paradox. But that's the gist of it. That's why she can draw on a future memory meeting the Chinese General and use it in the present. That's why she can also draw on the future book she will write explaining alien language so she can communicate with the black ink stuff in the present.
Like the name "Hannah" - understanding the alien language allowed her to read time forward and backwards. Imagine if you could write a sentence with both hands at the same time, each coming from the opposite direction and meeting in the middle. This line was said in the film and parallels the way aliens look at and deal with time. That's why their communications are complex (and symbolically circular rather than linear). It would seem that the ability to flashforward is explained in the film with "learning a new language rewires your brain and thinking."
The purpose of the future daughter who will get a terminal illness is dealing with fate. If we were able to flashforward (have future memories) would we change our decisions in the present? Wisely it doesn't answer this directly, but deals with it deeply. Something for the viewer to wonder on the way home, but also raises an interesting paradox in itself: Maybe she had memories of the future because that was never going to change her mind in the present. Perhaps that was the key to unlocking the ability or part of it.
One unexplained aspect: why did Ian (Renner) not also have flash forwards? Perhaps Louise was the only one truly capable of processing it in her mind.