UPDATE: a fair number of people have taken me to task for not pointing out that this is based on Ted Chiang's short story, STORY OF YOUR LIFE. I knew that but hadn't read it, so just didn't have anything intelligent to say. It is still worth pointing out though to give credit to the author for the original ideas. From what I understand the film sticks pretty close to the original story. Also, credit is due to the screenwriter Eric Heisserer.
Original article:
It is no secret that I love Denis Villeneuve (see my reviews of INCENDIES, PRISONERS, or SICARIO), and realistic science fiction. And being a professional astronomer brought up on Carl Sagan, I’ve also done plenty of thinking about extraterrestrial intelligence. And I’ve been fortunate enough to talk with some of the most creative minds on the planet about it, spanning both the science and science fiction worlds. I even did a bit of SETI research myself, I’ve taught classes on what alien life and communication might be like, and my current institution looks for extrasolar planets. All of this is just to say, I’ve thought a hell of a lot, maybe way too much, about what alien life and contact would *really* be like.
So when I heard Denis Villeneuve was making a realistic movie about aliens, I just about wet my pants. My expectations could not have been higher. They were exceeded. ARRIVAL is a masterpiece. It is already on my list of all-time favorite science fiction films.
Much of the genius of ARRIVAL comes in the steady buildup of the plot, and the pretty incredible ending, so I won’t spoil that. But it is safe to give the setup. One day, out of the blue, 12 alien ships just appear at seemingly random locations around the globe. Around the world various militaries take charge of trying to communicate with them, and they are making no progress. In the US, Colonel Weber (Forest Whittaker) recruits Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), arguably the world’s foremost language expert. She flies over to Wyoming, where she meets Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist. Together the two lead teams trying to decode the sounds the aliens make. Every day, they don protective gear, and go inside the alien spaceship, where they try to communicate with the aliens behind a transparent wall (since apparently they require different atmospheric conditions). I won’t spoil the appearance of the aliens because it is some time into the film before it is revealed. But I like it.
I won’t give anything else away, except to say that a significant chunk of the film focuses on this struggle to communicate with the aliens. This is a ballsy move, and I *love* it. There aren’t any Hollywood theatrics for the sake of it (e.g. Will Smith hamming it up, fighter planes, etc.), just a very real exploration of the main issue that we’ll face if we encounter alien life. How do you communicate when you have so little in common? I may yet get into what I think of the back and forth about the alien language by writing a spoiler filled “Science of” article after the movie comes. For now, let’s just say I think it is pretty cool.
This sounds pretty cerebral, but actually the film’s plot moves right along once Amy Adams gets to Wyoming. There is a ratcheting tension set by the fact that many nations are in both cooperating and vying for supremacy in cracking the alien language. And the stakes couldn’t be higher — if they get things wrong, either the aliens could wipe out humanity, or humans could start their own global war.
ARRIVAL gets just about everything right. The film looks stunning. The alien design, spaceship design, and cinematography are all top-notch. The science is great too. Amy Adams is perfect in the lead. I’m less sold on Jeremy Renner as a theoretical physicist, but he’s perfectly fine in the role. I also love the tension they build up between the freewheeling academics and the much more rigid and hierarchical military.
With all that going for it, ARRIVAL would be good, not great. But it has an additional element regarding family and loss that elevates the film to something higher. This subplot is revealed in the first scene, so it isn’t really a spoiler. Amy Adams’ character has a daughter who she lost to cancer. Flashbacks to this are interwoven throughout the main narrative. These don’t just sit there as backstory though — the way things come together at the end is jaw-dropping, and that’s what makes this film something truly extraordinary.
The way these snippets of memories of family life are sprinkled through the film is perfect. I hope ARRIVAL is nominated for editing. Not only does it serve the story, it creates an overarching tone that dominates the film. It also adds heart on top of what could otherwise be an intellectual exercise. In short, with ARRIVAL, Villeneuve has achieved what Terrence Malick has been trying, and failing, to do for his last three films — tap into the miracle of love and combine it with the wonder of the universe into a compelling cinematic experience. For that matter it is the same thing Christopher Nolan was going for, but never quite achieved, in INTERSTELLAR.
I knew Denis Villeneuve was one of my favorite filmmakers, and until now I always had him in the up-and-coming camp. But like the aliens in the film, he’s arrived. And he’s got abilities far beyond those of other masters of the form. My expectations for ARRIVAL were astronomical, and they have been surpassed. BLADE RUNNER 2 is in the best possible hands I can imagine.
