Linguist saves nations of the world from each other, but no "Kumbaya moment" for her

Rating: 5/10 (10 December 2016)

You never know what you're going to get with director Denis Villeneuve. I was not impressed with his political bias in "Incendies" but was pleasantly surprised with "Prisoners" which proved to be pretty entertaining. Now he's tackling sci-fi for the high-brow crowd with Arrival starring Amy Adams.
Arrival is similar to science fiction films from the 50s featuring an alien invasion and the obligatory American response. Villeneuve posits an armada of 12 obelisk-looking spaceships randomly touching down in different countries around the world. The one winding up in the US appears in an isolated area of Montana.
A rather grim Forest Whitaker plays US Army Colonel Weber who calls in linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to try and make contact with the aliens and find out what they want. The bulk of Act 2 involves Louise, along with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), attempting to decipher the aliens' strange language, circular images that appear before them like puffs of smoke. The aliens by the way are called "Heptapods" and can best be likened to giant jellyfish.
Be forewarned that those sci-fi aficionados who are used to a lot of action and derring-do on the part of a superhero or two, will be sorely disappointed here. Indeed, Louise's efforts at translating the mystery language is a long slog and only those who are appreciative of all the linguistic references will perhaps leave the theater satisfied.
Meanwhile the political aspect of the plot follows a familiar sci-fi trope—there is usually a progressive group (represented as Americans wouldn't you know it!) and a more reactionary one (featuring the militant Chinese General Shang who is inclined to attack the alien ship and ask questions later). When the Chinese linguists translate an alien word as "weapon," their conclusion is that the aliens are belligerent and have not come in peace (Louise's belief, on the other hand, is that the word is more benign—translating as "tool").
The apparent mistranslation provokes an international crisis, with the Chinese now on the verge of attacking the alien ship and others countries following suit. Villeneuve is not content to leave us with the impression that the Chinese and other bellicose nations are not the only ones guilty of a committed jingoism. There is also a rogue group of American soldiers who desire to do in the aliens and at one point smuggle a bomb on board the alien vessel--only to have the explosion deflected (with Louise and Ian saved) by Abbott, one of two aliens aptly named after the iconic comedy team, Abbott and Costello.
Leave it to Louise to save the day when she finally figures out that the aliens speak in a "non-linear" language and are able to perceive time as an organic entity. What this means is that we're all in store for a "Twilight Zone-like" ending where Louise runs into General Shang at a cocktail party in the future and he instructs her to go back to the present, call him on this secret cell phone number and tell him his wife's dying words that no one else could have known. This convinces the present-day General Shang to believe that Louise is the "real deal," has correctly understood that the aliens mean us no harm, and he orders his army then to stand down, preventing a guaranteed Armageddon.
It's all a wonderful "Kumbaya" moment for the nations of the world, but unfortunately not for Louise. She now realizes that all those earlier visions of her teenage daughter dying of cancer occurred in the future, and bravely decides to have the child with Ian anyway, even with the knowledge that things won't end up as gloriously as they did for mankind in general.
As for the acting, Whitaker and Renner have little to do in underdeveloped parts. Adams as the determined linguist certainly is acceptable but is saddled by the heavy-handed script, notable for its total lack of humor.
Villeneuve attempts to temper his happy ending of world peace with a bittersweet denouement for his heroine. But still the aforementioned "kumbaya moment" for the nations of the world is a disappointment (couldn't he have thought of something a little more clever?) Still, if your thing is linguistic puzzles mixed in with a touch of Twilight Zone, Arrival might just be for you. Others might not be so forgiving as this is for the most part, one decidedly lugubrious tale of sci-fi fancy.