Movie Review: Arrival★★★★

The film Arrival takes the genre of science-fiction into uncharted territory. The movie, directed by Denis Villenevue (Sicario, Enemies), tells the story of a bizarre extraterrestrial visit to Earth from the perspective of Doctor Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor hired by the U.S. government to aid in the translation of the aliens’ strange system of communication. Arrival avoids falling into the trap of having stunning CGI to compensate for a lacking plot, a formula all too typical of blockbuster science fiction movies. It’s a cerebral, engaging story that leaves the viewer in deep thought (if they can grasp the notoriously confusing ending.)

Arrival jumps right into the action with news reports broadcasting spaceships hovering over Earth. The enormous monoliths have an eerie and silent presence that sets the tone of the movie. The heroine, Dr. Louise Banks, cuts the class she’s teaching short in the ongoing chaos. She’s soon contacted by the United States Army, who seek her expertise in linguistics to help decrypt the aliens’ language. The film follows her and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a dashing young theoretical physicist, on their quest to communicate with Earth’s visitors.

The aliens (or “heptapods”) have a written language hich  is significantly different from any on Earth. Each symbol (which the beings can materialize into thin air at will) represents an entire cohesive thought or sentence. The symbols are circular and are read without a beginning or an end—the entire complex idea is expressed simultaneously. This system is derived from the fact that the heptapods do not experience time in the same fashion as humans—time for them is a dimension which can be interacted with and traveled through, rendering beginnings and endings of sentences useless.

This idea is reinforced when the film goes back and forth, following Louise throughout different events of her life which are shown non-sequentially, reflecting once again the fluid nature of time in the film. Louise interact with events in the future and the present, being aware of both actions at the same time. By having a conversation with her daughter in the present, she is able to help her with her homework in the future on the same topic. With the fate of both humanity and the alien’s race at stake, she is able to discuss a phone call she shared with the Chinese General Shang, while simultaneously having that conversation in the present. When the film features “flashbacks” on Louise’s present life, we’re in fact also getting a window into the future.

As the ending reveals, Louise has a choice to allow events to occur as she perceives them, or to alter them as they play out. She can actively play a part in determining her future, which she can conveniently predict. Louise poses a question to Ian at the end of the film: if he could see the whole story of his life, would he allow events to transpire exactly the same as they do? And this is the question that is at the heart of Arrival. If you had the ability to glance through your entire life, would you alter it?

Arrival is a must see if you want something to mess with your head. It explores mind boggling concepts, and your perception of the concept of communication and time will be frequently toyed with. If you can figure out the ending (a brutally difficult task), the film is brought together in a circular, cohesive arc. Nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Arrival received positive reviews from notable critics and these two Exonian writers.

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