A stunning and moving Sci-fi experience

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2016)

If we're lucky, a handful of titles per year offer movie lovers a chance to get to witness something that's original, thought-provoking and full of heart.
They're rare movie treats in today's climate and events that should be savored.
Arrival is one of these such movie treats; an intellectually intelligent Sci-fi that's highly likely to be regarded as a genre classic in the years soon to come.
Directed by Dennis Villeneuve (who has quickly become one of the industry's greatest current filmmakers), who here worked with screenwriter Eric Heisserer in adapting Ted Chiang's short story for the big screen, has created a Sci-fi event free of what you'd call large scale alien infused spectacle but instead filled a film with a quietly powerful narrative and ultimately stunningly moving centre that drives this unique vision to grand and near close to perfect Sci-fi heights.
Centered around the intriguing prospect of Amy Adams language expert Dr. Louise Banks, whose battling to figure out a way to communicate with an alien race that has decided to pay earth a potentially deadly visit, Arrival's narrative is best left relatively unspoken about as its complexities will be enjoyed that much more by those that know only minimal details about where Villeneuve and his talented cast are taking us.
Anchored by what could well very be an Oscar nominated turn, Arrival rides off the back of Amy Adams central turn and while the increasingly impressive actress is ably supported by Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker, Arrival really is her film.
Giving us a character who consistently surprises, just like the film itself, Dr. Banks is a likable and believable creation whose dealings with the newly discovered race will encapsulate you with nothing more than whiteboard, a finch and some stoic determination.
It's mesmerizing in an hypnotic like fashion in the way in which we are taken along for the journey of these other worldly language-filled encounters and it's an added joy that we're never fully sure of the alien's intentions until very late in the piece or fully understand where Villeneuve's plan for this poignant tale has been taking us until it dawns on us like the aliens mission late in the picture.
Ever so slightly held back by a rather forgettable collection of supporting characters, Arrival is comprised of an on form cast, vividly captured images from D.O.P Bradford Young and a haunting Jóhann Jóhannsson score all that back Villeneuve's overall vision to great results.
This alien invasion film with brilliantly constructed differences is a cinematic joy and this top class 2016 experience is but a further reason as to why we should now be signaling out Villeneuve as a potentially all-time great filmmaker, and why we should be excited for his next Blade Runner film that should very well be, quite the big screen marvel.
4 ½ inconvenient hazmat suits out of 5