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ARRIVAL (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ARRIVAL (2016) movie

Genre | Science Fiction

Classification | M

Running time | 116 minutes

Released | 10 November 2016

cast

Amy Adams ... Louise Banks
Jeremy Renner ... Ian Donnelly
Forest Whitaker ... Colonel Weber
Michael Stuhlbarg ... Agent Halpern

director

Denis Villeneuve

writer

Eric Heisserer ... (screenplay by)

Ted Chiang ... (based on the story "Story of Your Life" written by)

cinematographer

Bradford Young

music

Jóhann Jóhannsson

film editor

Joe Walker

box office result

Worldwide $203,388,186

Australia $6,164,359

North America $100,546,139

the best dialogue

Louise Banks: Despite knowing the journey... and where it leads... I embrace it... and I welcome every moment of it.

Ian Donnelly: You know I've had my head tilted up to the stars for as long as I can remember. You know what surprised me the most? It wasn't meeting them. It was meeting you.

Louise Banks: But now I'm not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings. There are days that define your story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived.

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ARRIVAL (2016) MOVIE IMAGES

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ARRIVAL (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team - lead by expert linguist Louise Banks - are brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers - and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.

ARRIVAL (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 9 November 2016
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anyone who has seen any of Denis Villeneuve's previous films will understand the French Canadian Director is a serious talent. His new film affirms his skill but is very different in style to the nerve-jangling tension of last year's Sicario or the blurred lines of good between good and evil of 2013’s Prisoners. Arrival works at its own pace and, for some viewers, will seem at odds by comparison with the loud and excessive ‘Alien Invasion’ genre that has seen recent entries such as Independence Day: Resurgence and The 5th Wave. While Arrival takes place on a global scale, the film remains steadfastly focussed on its characters and is far more interested in examining the human response to extraterrestrial arrival on Earth.

Arrival starts quietly, introducing viewers to the central character of eminent linguist Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) through a series of vignettes showing the relationship she shares with her daughter. Compressing a number of years into a few short scenes, the story moves to the arrival of twelve alien vessels and the need for Bank’s skills in helping to understand whether there is any way of comprehending the aliens. It is at this point in the story that Arrival takes a very different path to other recent films in the science fiction genre and aspires to join the group of truly great science fiction cinema such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like Dave Bowman, Kris Kelvin & Roy Neary before her, Louise Bank’s metaphysical journey remains the key focus of Arrival. Her insight into communication, coupled with her life experience, see her more prepared than those around her to embrace the arrival of the aliens as a unique opportunity for humanity to work together and unlock the puzzle that has been presented.

While Amy Adams is the key to the film’s success, her two co-stars, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker, play against expectation to support the film’s ambition to be a serious piece of cinema. Renner’s Ian Donnelly is a mathematician who makes a ‘leap of faith’ with Banks to move outside of his reliance upon pure science to try and comprehend why the aliens have come to Earth. Renner is understated throughout but remains an important player in the story right to the film’s closing frames, being the only other human who can come close to comprehending what Banks has experienced. Forest Whitaker also plays against the cinematic military stereotype as Weber, the US Army Colonel responsible for managing the on-the-ground response to the alien ship on American soil. Instead of barking orders and chewing scenery, Whitaker is firm but understanding in working with both Banks and Donnelly to achieve an outcome that will benefit humanity. Only under direct orders does he abandon his support but not his belief.

Arrival stumbles ever-so-slightly in the Third Act, as Eric Heisserer’s screenplay pulls back from Banks and Donnelly to show the global response to the alien’s continuing presence on the planet. Heisserer opts to stereotype the Chinese response to the aliens as overtly militaristic and, as a result, the denouement plays out as a one-note “I understand more than you” scenario. (Despite the criticism of this point, it must be stated that Heisserer’s Arrival screenplay demonstrates the considerable improvement with each successive film he writes and that he is a talent to keep watching.) In this, the film’s conclusion, with is singular focus of Louise Banks, seems at odds with the Arrival’s underlying narrative theme of progress through unified action. The question that is posed by the film is, besides Banks gaining greater insight into the aliens mode of communication, what else does anyone else learn? Villeneuve leaves this for the viewer to decide, as his interest continues to zero in on Banks and what it is she has learned from her experience. Not everyone who sees Arrival will agree with what it has to say, but as cinema it stands a cut above, with its striking visuals and impressive sound design. The film’s execution doesn’t quite match its ambition, but, if every science fiction film had the level of ambition of Arrival, the genre would be significantly better for it.