If you saw your whole life flash before you, would you try to change anything? If you could avoid suffering if it meant having to give up something you love, what would you do? Those are some of the questions we are left to answer in Arrival, Denis Villeneuve’s captivating 2016 Sci-Fi/Drama, and award season hopeful. What on the surface seems like a predictable movie about aliens, is so much more.
The film opens on a scene between a mother and her newborn daughter. Amy Adams (narrator and protagonist) plays Louise Banks, an expert linguist who works as a professor. The story moves along quickly at the start as we see her daughter’s early years, her cancer diagnosis, and untimely death in her adolescent years. Louise’s narration in the first scenes sets up the rest of the story: “I don’t think I believe in beginnings and endings anymore.”
When Louise is recruited by the government to help decipher the language of extraterrestrials who have just arrived on earth, we assume the story is picking up shortly after the death of her daughter. Lousie's melancholy disposition matched with the monotone colors and dreary cinematography, reinforces this assumption.
The American team of experts that has been assembled to find out why nine space crafts that have landed all over the world, are lead by Louise and Theoretical Physicist, Ian Donnelly, played by the delightful Jeremy Renner. The teams are working in conjunction with nine other nations that are trying to walk the line between peaceful discourse and protecting their respective nations, and ultimately humankind.
The space craft opens twice daily and a small team including Louise and Ian are given access to communicate with the aliens, or Heptapods, as they come to be known. In these "sessions" the humans and the aliens attempt to communicate through a glass divider.
As a Linguist, Louise is desperately trying to help the rest of her team understand how vital it is to begin with the basics of language when communicating with the Heptapods - emphasizing how many different ways communication can go awry, and has in fact caused whole civilizations to collapse.
This aspect of the film alone is cause for reflection and is incredibly relevant during a time when anyone can disseminate information and speak quickly and easily, reaching thousands or even millions of people with the click of a button. The fear that accompanies this reality, especially as it relates to people of power and influence having much to say and little wisdom in how and when to say it, makes this film resonate.
As the story unfolds, Louise successfully communicates with the Heptapods when they draw symbols and slowly Louise and her team are able to put together the purpose behind their visitor's arrival. Once Louise and Ian are able to "crack the code" of the Heptapods language, tensions run high as each nation interprets the Heptapods message in varying ways, and it isn't until near the end of the film when Lousie is granted a private audience with one of the Heptapods, that the narrative finally starts to take shape.
The last half and hour of the film really ramps up as Louise (through a special otherworldy connection with the Heptapods) starts to straddle the past, present, and future in a way that makes for one of the most unique storytelling methods I've ever seen. As we begin to learn more about the Heptapods and their purpose on Earth we begin to see that it's only through the cooperation of all of the nations that humanity can be saved.
Important themes come to the forefront like the multi-faceted reality of language - how it can be a weapon and a tool. The circular symbols that the Heptapods use to communicate mirrors the concept of time being circular and not linear as we understand it as human beings. The concept of time limiting (or not in this case) people or their stories, made me think more deeply about my own life and my faith. Especially as Louise is given the gift of transcending time and using the power of language to unite everyone in the film across time zones and species.
You'll have to see the movie to really grasp the complexity of the story. The cinematography is dreamy and the setting (the plains of Montana) is a beautiful backdrop for a film with such depth of meaning. Fog is used to conceal things and reveal them slowly, just as the narrative slowly develops. We are forced to be patient as an audience, but it is well worth the wait. This movie earns its slow pace and slowly developing narrative because it is expertly executed with an outstanding adapted screenplay and standout performances from Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
This was my favorite film of the year. And part of the reason why it earns that place for me is the fact that I am not a particularly huge fan of sci-fi, but this movie moved me to tears, more so than even some of the more emotional Oscar contenders this year. The story is so refreshing and I am disappointed it hasn't earned more recognition. I'm not expecting it to perform that well at the Oscars (though I could be wrong!) based on the other nominations in the same categories, but it will certainly be at the top of my favorite films list for many years to come.
As the story unfolds, Louise successfully communicates with the Heptapods when they draw symbols and slowly Louise and her team are able to put together the purpose behind their visitor's arrival. Once Louise and Ian are able to "crack the code" of the Heptapods language, tensions run high as each nation interprets the Heptapods message in varying ways, and it isn't until near the end of the film when Lousie is granted a private audience with one of the Heptapods, that the narrative finally starts to take shape.
The last half and hour of the film really ramps up as Louise (through a special otherworldy connection with the Heptapods) starts to straddle the past, present, and future in a way that makes for one of the most unique storytelling methods I've ever seen. As we begin to learn more about the Heptapods and their purpose on Earth we begin to see that it's only through the cooperation of all of the nations that humanity can be saved.
Important themes come to the forefront like the multi-faceted reality of language - how it can be a weapon and a tool. The circular symbols that the Heptapods use to communicate mirrors the concept of time being circular and not linear as we understand it as human beings. The concept of time limiting (or not in this case) people or their stories, made me think more deeply about my own life and my faith. Especially as Louise is given the gift of transcending time and using the power of language to unite everyone in the film across time zones and species.
You'll have to see the movie to really grasp the complexity of the story. The cinematography is dreamy and the setting (the plains of Montana) is a beautiful backdrop for a film with such depth of meaning. Fog is used to conceal things and reveal them slowly, just as the narrative slowly develops. We are forced to be patient as an audience, but it is well worth the wait. This movie earns its slow pace and slowly developing narrative because it is expertly executed with an outstanding adapted screenplay and standout performances from Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
This was my favorite film of the year. And part of the reason why it earns that place for me is the fact that I am not a particularly huge fan of sci-fi, but this movie moved me to tears, more so than even some of the more emotional Oscar contenders this year. The story is so refreshing and I am disappointed it hasn't earned more recognition. I'm not expecting it to perform that well at the Oscars (though I could be wrong!) based on the other nominations in the same categories, but it will certainly be at the top of my favorite films list for many years to come.
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