I’m going to warn in advance that there are some spoilers in this review as it is difficult to review without talking about the nature of the film which unfolds slowly throughout. To call this film science fiction is to do it a disservice. The science fiction is there to be sure, but it’s merely a vehicle to deliver a highly introspective and existential story as it profiles a woman’s life. Denis Villeneuve delivers another great Director performance with visuals and story that are in no hurry to unfold and work in perfect harmony. This won’t be a blockbuster and it probably won’t be noticed by the majority of movie going audiences, but if you are someone who enjoys impressive filmmaking then I highly recommend ‘Arrival’
The premise of the story is that twelve mysterious hemiglobe shaped spaceships arrive at random locations around the world. Global panic ensues. Respective governments make contact with the alien creatures, but communication is impossible given the vast differences between the two creatures. The head of the U.S. government task force, Colonel Weber, (Forrest Whitaker) reaches out to Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a top level linguist, in order to find some way to communicate with the aliens to determine their intentions. Along with a theoretical physicist, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a team enters the space ship to attempt to learn how the aliens communicate. This is where Villeneuve demonstrates his aptitude for science fiction in giving us hectopod shaped creatures who communicate through inky mists. An angle that could go horribly wrong under a lesser Director, but Villeneuve is able to fill us with a sense of wonder as these two species attempt to communicate with each other.
So, with this science fiction backdrop, the story of Dr Louise Banks becomes the focus of the film. Through visions that Louise seemingly randomly has, we see her life unfold before us. Early on, we realize she has suffered through the death of a child and we feel her pain. Her visions of her relationship with her daughter are both intimate and poetic. In a non-linear fashion, we have the arc of Louise’s daughter’s life laid out before us from birth to deathbed and the emotions that Louise experiences at each point. We feel her pains and joys as the film slowly unfolds and her life story starts to take focus albeit it in a mysterious fashion. This is the center of the film even as Ian and Louise begin to understand the nature of the alien language.
I’ll stop there in describing the film as anything else would be giving away too much. Instead I’ll focus on Villeneuve’s artistic vision. This film is the antithesis to a film like ‘Independence Day’. It’s an exploration… a quest and Villeneuve feels no obligation to get you anywhere in a hurry. Instead he seeks to create visual poetry and prose on the screen in order to advance the story. Part of the joy is getting there with him even if it doesn’t seem like a straight line. He existentially explores our perception of life and linear perception of time in a way I’ve rarely seen outside of authors like Alan Moore or the vastly underrated film ‘Cloud Atlas’ by the Warkowskis. Villeneuve explores our human limitation of perceiving time in a linear fashion and our capacity to one day rise above that.
If you go to this film expecting a science fiction story I feel you might be disappointed. In fact, by the end of the film I felt that the alien arrival was one of the least important aspects of the story and the resolution of that story line was highly unsatisfying, I find it hard to otherwise classify this film, so I’ll just call it a profile of one woman’s life. In seeing the choices she made, we question ourselves and the choices in our life. Looking back on your life, would you make the same choices you made? Even the ones that caused you pain? Or would you be able to appreciate the beauty of your life taken as a whole and appreciate the arc it took. It’s rare to find a science fiction film that causes you very human introspection, but I’m glad I found this one.
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