Film Review: Arrival (2016)

For sci-fi enthusiasts, The Holy Grail represents a film that belongs to the genre in its purest sense. Such genre-pure achievements are quite rare, because the most intriguing “what if” questions in filmmaking usually serve as an excuse for orgies of special effects or terrifying audiences with bug-eyed monsters, while the answers to those questions end up as an afterthought. Therefore, every “pure” sci-fi film that doesn’t hold back in stimulating the audience’s grey matter must be something special. Even rarer are “pure” sci-fi films that don’t succumb to pretentiousness or the lack of talent from their creators. One such exceedingly rare “pure” sci-fi film, one its creators can be proud of, is Arrival.

The plot is based on a premise with an impeccable pedigree for even the most demanding genre fans. It refers to Story of Your Life, a 1998 novella by sci-fi author Ted Chiang, which won the prestigious Nebula Award. The protagonist, portrayed by Amy Adams, is Dr. Louise Banks, a brilliant linguist and university professor deeply traumatised by the tragic death of her young daughter. Her personal struggles take a backseat, however, when twelve large alien spacecraft appear on twelve different locations on Earth. Dr. Banks is hired by the U.S. government as part of a team of top scientists attempting to decode the aliens’ language—or communicate with them to discern their intentions or whether they pose a threat to humanity. The encounter with these extraordinary aliens enables the first steps in this direction, but the process proceeds far too slowly for impatient officials and a hysterical public. Compounding the issue is the fact that different countries view the aliens differently, fearing their rivals might exploit the First Contact for their own gain. Dr. Banks is forced to use all her expertise to try to comprehend the aliens, whose modes of communication defy conventional understanding of the universe, before an apocalyptic conflict erupts.

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer has primarily worked within the sci-fi genre in his career, though most of his previous projects were either remakes of superior classic works or routine horror films. In the case of Arrival, however, Heisserer was one of the project’s driving forces, spending years trying to pitch his adaptation of Chiang’s story to major studios. His persistence coincided with Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious goal to add a sci-fi film to his already exceptional filmography. The result of their efforts was a film made for a relatively modest budget of under $50 million USD. Yet it feels like a “big” film—far grander than its budget or the relative constraints of its plot and characters might suggest.

Heisserer’s screenplay, of course, isn’t the first to tackle the theme of First Contact or the challenges it poses to humanity. What sets it apart, however, is its unconventional narrative structure and its focus on the protagonist’s perspective, including an unusually realistic and seemingly mundane portrayal of her experiences with the aliens’ arrival. This aligns perfectly with Villeneuve’s directorial style, his perfectionism, and his recent experience with Sicario, where the protagonist is also a woman hired by the U.S. government for a delicate and dangerous project. Thematically and in specific details, the film pays homage to classic works on the same theme, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but Villeneuve is cautious enough to preserve the original’s style, ensuring Arrival feels fresh and unique to audiences. The atmosphere and the haunting score by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson greatly enhance this effect, balancing “human” sentimentality with “alien” motifs that sound utterly foreign to human ears.

Finally, a crucial element of the film’s success is its exceptional acting ensemble, with Amy Adams delivering one of the most demanding performances of her career. She portrays a grieving mother, a serious scientist, a woman in love, and someone confronting incomprehensible experiences and perceptions of the universe. In comparison, the rest of the cast—including notable names like Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker—takes a backseat, but this does nothing to detract from the film. Even before his later successes with Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, Villeneuve has secured his reputation as a sci-fi genre maestro.

RATING: 9/10 (++++)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)

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