Arrival

Director Denis Villeneuve, is a fella who would likely be a household name if he didn't have a problem with sexism. After gaining traction with a series of critical hits including Incendies, Prisoners, and Enemy, Villeneuve's last two projects had the potential to be big budget blockbusters...until disagreements about the lead characters arose. And by disagreements I mean their genders. Apparently worried about the financial viability of an actress headlining films about drug cartels (Sicario) and aliens (Arrival), Villeneuve famously pushed back to maintain his casting decisions at the expense of his budget. Which makes the praise and success of today's film Arrival all the sweeter, but can it match the lofty expectations heaped upon it?

The setting is the near future where the world is turned upside down by the arrival of twelve alien crafts just above the earth's surface at various locations around the globe. Unable to decipher their speaking language, the American government seeks the aid of Dr. Louise Banks, a language expert, to find a means to communicate and determine the beings purpose for landing. Soon, Dr. Banks is faced with a ticking clock as some of the world's wary nations view the visitors as foes and wish to attack.

Arrival is a movie that would've been perfectly at home in fifties era sci-fi when over half of the genre focused on fighting invaders while the others basically dared humanity to do better with heavy-handed metaphors (a la The Day the Earth Stood Still). In case you couldn't guess, Arrival is firmly planted in the second category.

The majority of the film is dedicated to a trial and error efforts of Banks and a physicist played by Jeremy Renner, as they attempt to find common phrases or words to establish a baseline for understanding. The movie does an excellent job as setting up the challenges and how iomportant clearly established language is for understanding between the two parties. Amy Adams gets at least three monologues emphasizing why her slow but steady approach to finding common ground is crucial to avoid misunderstanding.

This is also where the movie finds its thematic core about how perspective can influence the nature of a simple "Hello, my name is Joe"-styled interaction. As such, the conflict in the movie is primarily Adams and Renner pushing back against the constraints of her government overseers or politics that hinders their collective progress. It's a far more restrained and idea based approach to science fiction and it's a welcome change.

Amy Adams delivers possibly the most complete performance of her career as Dr. Banks, drifting between self-assured moralizer, to an emotional wreck sometimes within the same scene. She also does an excellent job of showing Dr. Banks ease into her new surroundings and challenge, starting off as cautious and nervous to something more empathetic. The rest of roles are less interesting, but serve their narrative purpose. Jeremy Renner operates as Banks' wise-crackinng ally, Forest Whitaker exists to question her methods and give directions, while Michael Stuhlbarg gets to be "that guy" in almost every scene. They're stock roles but they're well performed.

Likewise, Denis Villeneuve contains his directing hot streak with visually stunning moments, the initial contact with the aliens is pretty great, and a brooding atmosphere that captures the film's collective mood from scene to scene. Subtle shifts like storms brewing when tensions rise or a slightly different motion from the aliens take on a much greater weight in Villeneuve's hands and he gets to show all of those skills off in Arrival.

As solidly made as this film is, you could argue that its sometimes glacial pace doesn't quite suit the material, and there's a number of big reveals that will split the audience. I personally thought a more straight-forward approach to the proceedings would've been more interesting (imagine an alien translation prochedural), but the film's themes and storytelling still left an impact. Also anyone hoping for some sort of action packed finale is going to be sorely disappointed. This is an ideas first movie all the way.

Taking after it's title, Arrival offers up a thoughtful look at communication and first contact with just enough wonder and humanity to connect. A solid sci-fi adventure.