Arrival

Year: 2016
Running time: 116 minutes

Certificate: 12A

Language: English

Screenplay: Eric Heisserer

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O'Brien, Tzi Ma, Abigail Pniowsky, Julia Scarlett Dan, Jadyn Malone

They've arrived.

Arrival is one of those very rare beasts; it is a film with zero fat. With no filler. Not a single scene is unnecessary - there is a reason for every moment, and it is only on second or third viewings that this really becomes apparent. The only other film I can think of that is so perfectly assembled off the top of my head is Die Hard; another marvel of storytelling that doesn't have a single superfluous scene.

Arrival is a science fiction movie. Except, it isn't, not really. To describe it as merely science fiction would be doing it a great disservice. It's about fate, communication, understanding, choices, love, empathy, loss, people and a raft of other things.

Massive spaceships arrive at Earth and simply hover at 12 different places around the world. Initial attempts at communication fail and international tensions rise. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguistics professor asked to lead a team in trying to find some way to communicate before war breaks out across the world. The way the aliens communicate is a marvel of visual design, smoky pictures swirling through mist against the glass that separates Louise and her team from the aliens. Slowly Louise deciphers the meaning in the symbols and tries to fathom the reason why they are here, and when Louise finally does understand she is granted what might appear like a gift, but when looked at in detail, is more like a curse. Louise is able to see time non-linearly. Not burdened by only being able to see the past from her own life's perspective, she can see her future, and uses the information from that to avert global war.

Louise tries to understand

But that's not really the whole story [MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW]. Being able to see her future, she can see her daughter Hannah (played at different ages by Abigail Pniowsky, Julia Scarlett Dan and Jadyn Malone). What had appeared like flashbacks regarding tragic loss is revealed to be a painful experience yet to unfold. Hannah is doomed to live a short painful life and die young.

So the question Arrival asks Louise, and by extension, us, is what does one do faced with this knowledge? Go ahead for the sake the joy and love, knowing there will be almost unbearable heartbreak as well? What about Hannah's father Ian (Jeremy Renner)? Do you tell him? If you can perceive time in this non-linear fashion, do you even have a choice? You've already seen what you do, so what choice now to do anything different? Is there a multiverse that will account for your decision if it's different? How can it? The future you've seen is your version of it, not that of some other Louise making different choices.

It may be science fiction on the surface, but Arrival has a devastating emotional punch to it, and poses different questions every time you re-watch it, and for that it is a wonder of storytelling, demanding to be seen more than once.

Score: 9/10

Arrival sparks deep and complex thoughts wherever it goes and I love it for that. These reviews from Geoffrey at The Independent and Alissa at Vox also appear to love it.