'Arrival' Review

Image from The Guardian

By Darian Scalamoni

            Arrival is a film that is incredibly original, it strays far from the usual path that cinema has with comic book movies, sequels and reboots. Denis Villeneuve’s latest foray follows Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks, a professor of linguistics who is brought in by the government to help interpret a language from aliens who land on Earth. The movie is so much more than that though as it provides a true human element that one could not believe a Sci-Fi movie can do.

            Louise is a character that is stricken with grief after a tragedy strikes her in which she lives with pain daily. Her role in deciphering the alien language is essential as the alien spacecraft in Montana is one of twelve pods that land in all random spots. Not one country has any idea why these pods have landed or what they want but their presence is enough to spark a global chaos. Banks is partnered with a mathematician, Ian Donnelly, played by Jeremy Renner, an opposing but sweet figure who sets up a perpendicular in which the movie paints whether math or language is the truest form of communication. Having said that, unfortunately, Renner is basically a throw-away character as the film is very much Adams’.

            Her performance as Banks may be the best of her career which is hard to believe as she has been nominated for five Oscars but this role is unlike any other she’s undertaken before. There’s a quiet, tenseness to her performance that seems far different than her role in another upcoming movie, Nocturnal Animals. Though Adams is the MVP of the film in terms of character, others aren’t given as much to work with. Renner, Michael Stuhlbarg and Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker don’t add much to the film in terms of supporting characters but it’s not as needed as Banks and the aliens take center stage.

            It’s the technical aspects that were most impressive to me as it provided one of the best scores of the year from Johann Johannsson. Playing sounds in which it sounded like a loud iron blast along with Bradford Young’s amazing cinematography that makes it seem like a much more desolate setting when in the alien ships that are called, Heptapods. Every element adds to the intense nature of discovering why these other species landed on Earth and what do they want. The film is very much a slow burn though and only within the last 25 minutes or so, it takes a completely different direction that most found organic but I found it more of a distraction than anything. Though it’s a science fiction film that is smarter than most and is not a true alien invasion movie in the same vein as Independence Day, which is great for the genre, it seems much more of a movie where the characters are thinking rather than making the audience think at times.

            It is that in fact along with the throwaway performances from established actors that puts me in the minority to which I believe that Arrival is a above average film, but not as great as everyone else says it is. It seems that the main theme of language and theory takes a backseat within the third act and the plot seems to fall apart just a bit. As a fan of Villeneuve’s cinema over the past few years (Sicario, Prisoners), I will say that this was a bit of a disappointment but if this was his worst film he will put out, it’s a damn good one.

7.5/10