Diplomacy and fear collide in 'Arrival'
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for “Arrival,” a science-fiction drama focused more on cultural communication than it is with visitors from another planet.
The film is fairly pointed about the importance of unity and understanding in the face of uncertainty — a message that resonates regardless of the election outcome. The main character in “Arrival” is a linguistics professor — so viewers probably shouldn’t expect a slam-bang adventure where Will Smith welcomes an alien by punching it in the face.
Directed by Dennis Villeneuve (“Prisoners,” “Sicario”), “Arrival” builds tension with lighting, composition and sound in ways many filmmakers today disregard in favor of pyrotechnics and CGI wizardry. On the sci-fi scale of Nuanced-to-Ridiculous, the movie falls somewhere between “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Contact.” It even shares a key plot element with the Sandra Bullock space adventure, “Gravity,” and Villeneuve plays on that familiarity to execute the third act of “Arrival.”
Amy Adams, terrific as usual, stars as Louise Banks, a linguistics expert who leads a team tasked with communicating with alien visitors. Twelve identical space ships have appeared in seemingly random locations around the world, each hovering just a few feet off the ground. A door opens every 18 hours, leading down a trippy, gravity-defying corridor to a glass wall where two aliens appear from fog on the other side. I won’t spoil their appearance, but they don’t look like the garden variety little green men.
The alien language is baffling to human ears, but Louise begins to decipher their written form with the help of an astrophysicist played by Jeremy Renner. Forest Whitaker co-stars as the U.S. military officer who recruits them both and hopes to learn the purpose of the alien visit before the government and other world leaders make rash and violent decisions.
To talk about the aliens’ intention would be driving the review too deep into the back half of the film. The first half is masterful in its establishment of dread. The spacecraft and alien design factor there too, especially in how Villeneuve withholds visual details to further heighten the mystery of their appearance.
Some of the best scenes focus on the working interplay between the Adams and Renner characters. Renner is essentially playing a sidekick, but he works as a complement to Adams’ pragmatic and hyper-competent protagonist. Adams is subtle-but-magnetic, and her precise interpretation of the character matters most when the movie makes a significant narrative leap.
Audiences should avoid reading too much more about where “Arrival” goes. While many won’t like the big choice it makes, Villeneuve executes that choice ingeniously. The visual language factors into the narrative in a way that feels exciting and that separates itself from the expectations we have when making the easy comparisons to “Contact” or “Close Encounters.”
Maybe the movie leans a little hard on the idea of cultural kumbaya. It definitely tends to depict America as far more competent and level-headed in comparison to other countries — that is, until an undercooked subplot spills over unnecessarily into the main narrative. Still, Villeneuve holds focus on Louise, a nuanced character with a strong arc that overshadows the more traditional plot elements.
It isn’t an accident “Arrival” landed just days after a bitter and divisive presidential election. The movie has no political slant other than a message that applies to either side — in communication, listening is more important than talking.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.