Why are they here and how do we communicate with them?

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2016)

"Arrival" (2016 release; 116 min.) brings the story of a group (12, to be exact) spaceships arriving on earth, and how mankind deals with it. As the movie opens, we see a woman (Louise, we later learn) with her daughter over the years, with her daughter passing away due to a rare disease. What is going on here? Louise turns out to be a linguist, and when a spaceship arrives in Montana, she is recruited as a translator. Turns out the aliens are "talking" through complex symbols. At this point, we are less than 15 minutes into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, one of my favorite film makers of this generation. He is on an amazing streak of quality movies. His movie from last year "Sicario" was my No. 1 movie of the year, and before that he brought us "Enemy", "Prisoners" and "Incendies". Here, he goes sci-fi, with the arrival of aliens, and leaving us wonder "why are they here?" and "How do we communicate with them?". If you are expecting an all-out sci-fi action movie (think "Independence Day"), you will be sorely mistaken, as this is more the "brainy" type of a sci-fi movie. Think more "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", minus the action scenes, and with tons more of "attempting to communicate" scenes. Despite the mostly serious tone of the movie, there are some lighter moments too. After the very first attempt to communicate with the aliens goes nowhere, Louise asks the Army Colonel "Am I fired?", ha! Amy Adams (as Louise), Jeremy Renner (as the scientist) and Forest Whitaker (as the Colonel) are fine in the lead roles, but really take a backseat to the overall sci-fi setting of the movie. The photography is outstanding, and sometimes pure eye-candy. Last but not least, there is an outstanding soundtrack, courtesy of Johann Johannsson (who also provided the score for last year's "Sicario").
"Arrival" opened wide this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Friday evening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati was attended nicely (but wasn't anywhere close to a sell-out). If you are in the mood for an 'intellectual' sci-fi that takes another look at the eternal issues confronting mankind when aliens come to earth (why are they here and how do we communicate with them), then this movie is right on target, and worth checking out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "Arrival" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!