another encounter of the third kind

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2017)

Almost every season of American cinema in this period brings about at least one big sci-fi production. While in recent years the themes dealt with space exploration within Earth orbit ( 'Gravity' in 2013 directed by Alfonso Cuaron Sandra Bullock and starring George Clooney ) or the planets of our solar system (Ridley Scott's 'The Martian' with Matt Damon last year), 'Arrival' this year returns (as 'Interstellar' by Christopher Nolan, also starring Matt Damon in the title role of 2014) to one of the themes of most popular in the classical literature and film of the genre and namely contact with extra terrestrial civilizations and possible visits and even invasion of our planet by representatives of civilizations more advanced than ours.
What can bring new another movie in a genre so popular and populated with significant creations, with branches in all genres from science fiction and apocalyptic visions to technological sparkling comedies and fairy tales that turn extra-terrestrial beings in friendly issues and the films in family-friendly productions? 'Arrival' managed to generate interest because it follows two of the basic rules of success in this sub-genre of science fiction. The first is that a film of 'first contact' must have the focus or pay significant space to humans and their real problems, must have heroes in flesh and blood, with whom viewers can identify. Dennis Villeneuve's film has as the main heroine Louise Banks, a beautiful woman but passed beyond the first youth who has just gone through the terrible trauma of losing a child to an incurable disease. The beginning of the film looks more like the beginning of a psychological drama about post-trauma recovery, and this is what this film is actually in some way. But of course, Louise Banks is a doctor in linguistics and because of this expertise is involved in trying to communicate with the passengers of the 12 spacecraft suddenly appeared in sight of earthlings. Intervenes here second compulsory element in the success of the genre which requires the contact between civilizations to combine in suitable doses the mystery and anguish human contact with the unknown and an explanation which has sufficient scientific logic (or humor or poetry, in other films ) to satisfy curiosity but also to stay with the audience after the film. Here lies the secret of the interest and success of the film.
From here starts but actually the most difficult part. For us, people (scientists or movie viewers), imagination is the only tool that we have at hand to imagine how the inhabitants of other planets physically look. Dreams and nightmares may take the forms, but the filmmakers have a duty to bring the extra-terrestrial on-screen, to shape dreams and imagination. Many movie genre filmmakers often failed, because when dreams becomes concrete substance, interest and expectations often melt into disappointment. You can not say that in 'Arrival' this issue is resolved, rather it is avoided or marginalized in style. Extra-terrestrial in Villeneuve's film are seven-legged creatures looking like octopuses, but to relieve the feeling of revulsion or physical danger there always is a screen between them and people. Viewers' attention is directed to the central theme of the film which is the possibility or impossibility of dialogue between civilizations that can be very different in their biological characteristics and stages of development and therefore use highly specific media each.
The main question the heroes in 'Arrival' are faced with is related to the intentions of the extra-terrestrials. To judge them in the image, likeness and intentions of humanity can be a fatal mistake. But ignorance can be fatal and potential hazards are present. Why did the extra-terrestrials come on our planet? What are their intentions? Cooperation or exploration, or conversely, the monopolization of resources (which ones?) on our planet and maybe annihilation? How can be established communication with them, how can their messages be translated when the bases are unknown language they use and even fundamental pillars of their way of thinking are different? I will not give too much detail because I do not want to take away from the joy of watching a film that I recommend to everyone. Of course, the lead heroine plays a key role in the solution of the problem and the answer will come in the end and is related to her biography and traumas that had she went through.
The film is based on a story by writer Ted Chiang, winner of the Nebula Award, one of the most important distinctions of genre, in 2000. The text addresses many aspects of the theory of language, perception of time and determinism underlying human communication, and develops a principle known in linguistics and epistemology as the 'Sapir-Whorf hypothesis' or 'relativity language', after which language determines or at least influences the way of thinking, knowledge, and the decision-making of those who use it. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer and director Dennis Villeneuve found screen equivalents to some of the ideas of the story and added further elements, some more successful (i.e. the very credible 'international' response the arrival of extra-terrestrials) other less to my taste (resolving at the last moment the inter-civilization the crisis that is on the brink of armed conflict seemed too 'Hollywood-ish'). The film's graphics solutions for the relations between civilizations at first contact are well suited and exceptionally aesthetic. There are too many details in this film about extra-terrestrial technology, and about the secrets that they want to transmit to mankind, and all these make this movie worth seeing.