Review - Arrival (2016)

Story of your life

Amy Adams gives a remarkable performance in Arrival.

It's a tricky task to put Arrival into a certain genre, or to be specific, under "Science-Fiction" category. Yes, there is much science and fiction going on in it, but unlike many others, the film is like a dreamy, melancholic piece - a swan song of sort, which pulls your heartstrings more than exercising your cerebral thinking. It moves you in ways which sci-fi films don't. Thanks to outstanding work by Amy Adams and equally masterful direction by Denis Villeneuve - Arrival defies common genre boundaries by every sense.

Sometime in near future, twelve extra-terrestrial space pods arrive at various locations across the globe. The capsule like enclosures hover some twenty feet over the land and none of the life form which resides within them seem to be coming out or making any contact. "Why they are here?" is the billion dollar question which needs to be answered right away. As media and general public all over the world becomes more anxious and fearful about the nature of these spaceships, military forces start to take precautionary action and teams of scientists are assembled to uncover their truth. 

Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguist professor at a university in Montana. Having worked with military intelligence before, she is recruited by the army for a top secret mission - to communicate with the alien beings and discover their actual motive of arrival at Earth. She is joined by Physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) on the mission, and as tensions rise all over the world, both of them together start a series of sessions. Starting with rudimentary form of communication with chalk and slate, Louise and Ian take baby-steps, one day at a time to learn the alien language.

The alien language is particularly amusing and visually striking. The circular loops of inky-black wisps may refer to a word, sentence or even an entire notion. The aliens themselves are a cross between a giant humanoid and an octopus, albeit with seven legs. Their voice (much credit to the sound design team) is eerily outlandish and yet, not so threatening. As the sessions continue, both Louise and Ian learn about the exotic loop symbols and much of the film's middle portion is devoted to it. By the last thirty minutes however, Eric Heisserer's script takes a mind-boggling twist. I would rather not divulge that twist here, but let's say that it makes this film a worthy companion to recent celebrated works like Interstellar and Gravity. To drop a tiny hint - the film brings up alluring notions about your past memories, your losses, your decisions and how they all ultimately affect your life. 

Beautifully shot and aptly paced, Arrival is technically flawless. The design of creatures and the pod is strikingly original, while the use of Max Richter's On the Nature of Daylight is deeply moving. Adams is subtle and quite understated for much of the film, but her scenes near the end deliver a powerful emotional punch on the audience. The film is literally carried on her shoulders, and much like Sandra Bullock in Gravity, she carries it with strength and robustness.

During the opening voice-over, Adams' character says "I'm not so sure that I believe in beginnings and endings. There are days that define your story beyond life." Like a palindrome, the film has no beginning or an end - it's a sequence of events and memories, and irrespective of which end you traverse it, you would always go through the same emotions and same feelings. With brilliant central performance by Amy Adams, Arrival is unique and surprisingly emotional film. The film's last minutes make a grand statement about life, and combined with the effect of the opening and the last shot, you take home much more than mere science-fiction.

3.5/5