Arrival

photo courtesy of vcga.ca

     Arrival is the film adaptation of Ted Chiang’s acclaimed short story “Story of Your Life.” Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, Arrival is a poignant and well-developed look at love and loss, told through the lens of science fiction.

     Arrival tells the story of top linguist Louise Banks (Adams), who is contracted by the government to assist in communicating with a race of aliens, whose ships have appeared at various points around the Earth’s surface. As Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner) make headway with the mysterious alien race, they discover that there may be more to their arrival than meets the eye.

photo courtesy of darkhorizons.com

     The first thing to note is that although Arrival is a science fiction film, it doesn’t necessarily feel a lot like a science fiction film. That is, you shouldn’t expect travel through space, technology jargon, or intergalactic drama. Instead, Arrival presents a story that is rooted in a real world, interrupted by the sudden appearance of an inscrutable alien race. And while the aliens are central to the plot of the film, the movie isn’t exactly about them, per say. It’s about what they can reveal to Banks about her relationship with humanity and her daughter.

     Amy Adams as Louise Banks is in her element. The portrayal of Banks is one of the most intimate portraits of a character in recent sci fi fare, nuanced and multifaceted. Adams proves that she deserves more attention than she gets as Lois Lane in the DC Comics Universe. Renner has a smaller role, but he manages to deliver a solid performance as well.

photo courtesy of rogerebert.com

     Arrival’s strongest asset is its narrative, no doubt due to its origins as a short story. In contrast to many of the flashy and overstuffed sci fi films recent, Arrival is confident enough to keep the scale tight and focused, and to spend time patiently developing its characters. It’s the epitome of elegant and masterful storytelling, but it can come off as slow if you’re expecting something different. Everything that Arrival covers, though, is worth paying attention to.

     It’s the sci-fi movie that Interstellar was aspiring to be and failed to fully achieve. That is, it wraps a story about love and family and the meaning of relationship into a modern sci fi package. But whereas Interstellar was less successful at integrating the two organically, Arrival does so almost perfectly.

photo courtesy of nytimes.com

     The comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s work don’t stop there. The movie captures something of the Nolan aesthetic—things are often dark or lit by the cool glow of a winter sunrise or a computer screen. It also features a mind-bending, reality-twisting story that beguiles audiences and mirrors Inception’s illusory charm. Second viewings are most definitely in order.

     The aliens themselves are introduced skillfully. Too often the presence of extraterrestrials overshadows the other set pieces, but here the aliens themselves are real characters, who play into the story and who develop as characters should. They also defy many of the alien tropes audiences have become used to, so their involvement is enough of a variable to keep the audience engaged.

photo courtesy of qz.com

     What makes Arrival so successful, though, is not any of the set pieces or aliens. It’s that the movie really gets at something fundamental to human existence. It raises (and then artfully and heartbreakingly answers) moral questions about the way we live in relationship with others and the consequence of choice. It’s that emotional core that Arrival patiently draws out. The result is one of the most meaningful science fiction movies in recent memory.

photo courtesy of slate.com