Arrival (2016): A Review

Perspective. It is a wonderful thing to have the benefit of a good perspective. Through it we glimpse life. Perspective helps us make the important decisions. It gives us a vantage point from which to understand our very humanity.

But what if your reality was suddenly and radically changed? How would your perspective shape how you grasp such change? How would such change shape your perspective?

What if that perspective was not bound by the linear progression of time as humans currently experience it? What if past, present, and future were all one? How would that alter perspective?

Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams, brilliantly and poignantly grapples with these questions and more. In the four years that have passed since I first saw this film in theaters, my perception is still being molded by the experience.

The movie is based on the novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, and is a narrative of a linguist tasked by the United States government with negotiating first contact with an alien race that has suddenly and alarmingly arrived. She, alongside an astrophysicist, learns the alien language and begins to piece together the puzzle of their purpose on our planet.

Arrival is centered, in part, on a linguistic theory that postulates that one’s outlook on the universe is understood through the language one speaks. As the linguist learns the alien’s language, she gains their perspective on the universe, and this begins to intertwine with her personal life choices as well as the mission at hand in surprising and deeply affecting ways.

While the story of Arrival is superbly written, it is enhanced by first class acting from Amy Adams. It is one of her best performances. A supporting cast of Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker make her even better. She navigates the bewildering, the personal, the tragic, and the euphoric with a deceptive ease.

Jeremy Renner plays the astrophysicist and counterpoint to Adams. He is his usual charming, likable self, and provides a steady “straight man” to the ride that Adams takes throughout the movie. Whitaker is the by-the-book military liaison that they both answer to. He is perfectly cast, as Whitaker’s natural compassion, evidenced throughout his body of work, shines through the military uniform and demeanor that he wears.

The cinematography in Arrival is breathtaking, filmed in Canada for Montana. Wide landscapes and deep skies set this film apart from most green screen and CGI heavy movies. The music is haunting and perfectly written by Johan Johansson and was nominated for an Academy Award. Finally, the sound design of the alien vocalizations is affecting and unsettling, as one imagines an alien voice might be like.

I watched Arrival the previous night in preparation for this review, and was again impacted by this heartfelt, and at times, heart wrenching story. It is a great science fiction film, but don’t expect the run and gun invasion story because this isn’t that. Expect instead to think. Expect a gripping story of humanity coming face to face with the galactic but in a very small, and quiet way that is both surprising and enlightening. Expect to have your perspectives challenged and changed.

What Arrival does is the purview of all great science fiction: it takes the fantastic and makes it relatable. Great science fiction uses the wonderful to insert the audacious. It asks the hard questions in the guise of something incredible. If you enjoy great science fiction, and have managed to not see Arrival to date, please put it on your list of “must see” films. Obviously I highly recommend it, but not just because it is a beautiful film, but because it is great science fiction.