If you’re making a film about communication, it’s important to make a point about just how bad the human race is at it. On the surface, Arrival is nothing new. When the Earth is visited by several alien spacecrafts, a multitude of world governments scurry around, bringing in various experts in hopes of a possible explanation. Their actions are guided by fear. The history of humanity is one of brutality, and humans do not have the capacity to think unknown visitors will come in peace. The whole planet is turning itself upside down in an effort to answer the most important question: why are they here? What is their purpose? What is the possibility they come to not inflict harm? At the soul of Arrival is an attempt at empathy, an attempt at understanding, and most obviously, an attempt at communication.

Amy Adams plays Louise, a renowned linguistics professor and published author tapped by the US government to help understand possible communications coming from a sporadic group of alien spacecrafts. Twelve of them have arrived, in random stations all over the world. One is in Siberia, one is in China, the one we become the most acquainted with is in Montana. The people in power are attempting to remain calm in their attempts to introduce themselves to their new visitors, but at the heart of everything is an inherent panic at the possibilities of the destruction that could come. With fantasies guided not only by science fiction films, but also regular ol’ human history, the governments around the world attempt to work together to form a communication  – but it’s seen almost as a formality the first step before real action is taken and we are left with the conclusion of defending ourselves. Louise is contacted by Col. Weber (Forest Whitaker), a senior military officer in charge of Louise’s mission. He explains himself clearly: her goal is to figure out why they are here. Everything else is less important.

To work with Louise, Weber picks theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner). He’s meant to handle the nuts and bolts science while Louise is in charge of the more practical stuff. They don’t have much to work with. Just recorded groans that sound not unlike your average sci-fi monster. Like Godzilla in an echo chamber. It’s up to Louise to find out how to deconstruct these sounds. Are they attempts to communicate? If so, are they threats? This is the main question that government officials keep hammering over and over: are they here to hurt us? To take over? Louise, though, understands that learning a new language takes time, and multiple steps. A growth of trust must occur for two beings to begin to comprehend one another. Ian goes along with Louise’s more patient plan, and Weber has respect for what the two of them are trying to accomplish, but government pressure is building. This includes federal agent Halpern (Michael Stuhlbarg), who wishes both to keep up with the allied nations in their understanding, but also wishes to make sure that the US is safe from harm.

The screenplay from Eric Heisserer is filled with a lot of heavy concepts, both thematic and scientific. It’s not as heavy on jargon like its adult scifi peers Interstellar and The Martian, but that’s because Heisserer’s script is so much more rooted in its protagonist. The script is based on a short story by Ted Chiang called ‘Story of Your Life’, and it weaves in and around time, using its cleverness in a way that never leaves its audience behind. Director Denis Villeneuve shows a wonderful dexterity with this story. Throughout his American filmmaking career, he’s found a knack for creating a fierce immediacy in his films. Enemy and Sicario drifted into peculiar territory, but Villeneuve enjoys making the audience feel his scenarios. He’s unafraid of discomfort, but is a populist filmmaker at heart. There’s a real Christopher Nolan-ness to his films, but Nolan could never be as chilly as Enemy or as cynical as Sicario. Arrival is Villeneuve more fully embracing his place as a Hollywood big-budget filmmaker, but he’s still making something here that is dynamic and mature. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen from him.

I can’t think of a better casting choice for Louise than Amy Adams. She’s been a Hollywood staple for so long, I sometimes think people forget just how talented she is. She’s spent her career playing both toward and against type, and has found her range in her work with David O. Russell and Paul Thomas Anderson, while maintaining a career as a bubbly girl-next-door type. At this point, she no longer has to choose roles with her screen persona in mind. She can really do anything. Arrival doesn’t fully exploit everything that Adams has to offer as a performer, but its her very presence in the film that is so effective. She exudes the empathy needed for Louise with almost no effort at all. In a short prologue, the film tells us that Louise has lost a child to illness, which will recall for most audiences a similar character detail for Sandra Bullock’s Ryan Stone in Gravity. The way Arrival processes this grief is one of the movie’s most pleasant surprises, and Adams’ portrayal of it is phenomenal.

Casting Jeremy Renner as some sort of a super scientist is a bit of a stretch, only emphasized by the fact that Renner’s Ian doesn’t seem to be handling a whole lot of science at all throughout the film. Renner’s performance works better when Ian is simply a companion for Louise, someone who can appreciate the sheer awesomeness of coming face to face with life from another planet. In a scene where Louise and Ian are first introduced to the creatures, it’s their reactions that stand out as the pertinent images, not what they’re reacting too. Working with the great cinematographer Bradford Young (A Most Violent Year, Selma), Villeneuve crafts an astonishingly beautiful film, supported by a wondrous score from Jóhann Jóhannsson. More than anything, Arrival is something of a rarity: a studio-backed genre film for adults. We don’t get to see too many these days, with Hollywood usually only taking this kind of gamble once or twice a year. Thankfully, this one is also quite good.

 

Directed by Denis Villeneuve / Written by Eric Heisserer