Arrival

I have been waiting avidly for Arrival to arrive. It won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and, for a while, it was 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It is down to 93% now. Anyway, there was a danger that my expectations were a little too high. But, I am happy to report that Arrival was worth the wait. I will try and keep the Spoilers to a minimum. Arrival begins with the arrival on Earth of twelve alien spacecraft which open up every 18 hours so the humans can "talk" to the aliens. At first, there isn't much communication going on so a couple of university professors, a language expert (Amy Adams) and a theoretical physicist (Jeremy Renner) are brought in to help the American team led by a very harried colonel (Forrest Whitaker). Similar things are happening with the other eleven spacecraft which have landed in other countries. There is some and then no cooperation between the nations as they try and figure out what the Aliens' intentions are.

Arrival is a very well put together film. It not only has subtle plot twists but it also twists time and space. The movie starts slowly but the tension keeps rising as the movie goes on. The plot seems very simple at first. Amy Adams is almost like Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon from The Da Vinci Code as she tries to decode the Alien language which consists of circles of various types. But then suddenly the plot isn't so simple, and the viewer will take a while to figure out what is happening along with Adams. Just as Adams is starting to understand the Aliens, the crisis peaks as various other countries decide that the aliens are a threat.

The director of Arrival is the Canadian, Denis Villeneuve. This is his first SciFi movie, but he does likes to make films with strong female leads. His last film was Sicario with Emily Blunt. His next film is the Blade Runner reboot. The direction is simple and low key as are the characters. This quietness provides a stark contrast with the chaotic events that are unfolding. Amy Adam, seen most recently as Lois Lane in Batman v Superman, is perfect for the role of the person "chosen" to speak to the Alien visitors. Jeremy Renner, best known as Hawkeye in the Avengers movies, is a good foil for Adams character. It is almost too much gender stereotyping since Adams is the emotional communicator and Renner is the unemotional scientist. But it works and, of course, when the chips are down, the gender roles reverse quickly. Whitaker is very good as the military man who learns how to deal with very unmilitary academics.

It is impossible when watching Arrival not to think of other Alien "first contact" movies like ET, Close Encounters, and 2001.  But, although the plot itself is very different, there are a lot of strong echoes of Jodi Foster's character in Contact.  Both Foster and Adams are women in a sea of men who are the only ones sensitive enough to "hear" what the Aliens are saying. There are other similarities too, but no spoilers. This is a very good film and you should try and see it before you hear too much about the plot. The ending may surprise you.