Arrival (2016)

Arrival: Directed by Denis Villeneuve. With Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg. A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.

“Sometimes I can get very irritated by a trailer for giving too much away (case in point, u0026quot;Roomu0026quot; and more recently u0026quot;Passengersu0026quot;). Sometimes I can get very excited by a really good teaser trailer (case in point, u0026quot;10 Cloverfield Laneu0026quot;). But most of the time a u0026quot;ho humu0026quot; trailer typically drives the expectation of a u0026quot;ho humu0026quot; film: u0026quot;Jack Reacher: Never Look Backu0026quot; being a good recent example. Then there is u0026quot;Arrivalu0026quot;…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBecause the trailer for u0026quot;Arrivalu0026quot; belies absolutely nothing about the depth and complexity of the film. At face value, it looks like a dubious u0026quot;Close Encountersu0026quot; wannabe, with a threat of movement towards the likes of u0026quot;Independence Dayu0026quot; and u0026quot;The 5th Waveu0026quot;. Actually what you get is a film that approaches the grandeur of u0026quot;Close Encountersu0026quot; but interlaces it with the intellectual depth of u0026quot;Inceptionu0026quot;, the mystery of u0026quot;Interstelleru0026quot; and a heavy emotional jolt or two of u0026quot;Upu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAmy Adams (u0026quot;Batman vs Supermanu0026quot;) plays Dr Louise Banks, a language teacher at a US university facing a bunch of particularly disengaged students one morning. For good reason since world news is afoot. Twelve alien craft have positioned themselves strategically around the world, hanging a few feet from the ground in just the sort of way that bricks donu0026#39;t. Banks is approached by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and offered the job of trying to communicate with the aliens: where did they come from? why are they here? Banks faces the biggest challenge of her academic career in trying to devise a strategy for communication without any foundation of knowledge on what level communication even works at for them. Assisted by Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner, u0026quot;Mission Impossible IV/Vu0026quot;, u0026quot;Avengersu0026quot;), a theoretical physicist, the pair try to crack the code against a deadline set by the inexorable rise of international tensions – driven by Chinau0026#39;s General Chang (Tzi Ma, u0026quot;Veepu0026quot;; u0026quot;24u0026quot;).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSteven Spielberg made a rare error of judgement by adding scenes in his u0026quot;Special Editionu0026quot; of u0026quot;Close Encounters of the Third Kindu0026quot; showing everyman power guy Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) entering the alien spacecraft. Some things are best left to the imagination. Here, a reprise of that mistake seems inevitable, but – perversely – seems to be pulled off with mastery and aplomb. The aliens are well rendered, and the small scale nature of the set (Iu0026#39;m sure Iu0026#39;ve been in similar dingy waiting rooms in UK railway stations!) is cleverly handled by the environmental conditions. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut where the screenplay really kills it is in the emergence of the real power unleashed by the translation work. To say any more would deliver spoilers, which I wonu0026#39;t do. But this is a masterly piece of science- fiction writing. The screenplay was by Eric Heisserer – someone with a limited scriptwriting CV of horror film reboots/sequels such as u0026quot;Final Destination 5u0026quot;, u0026quot;The Thingu0026quot; and u0026quot;A Nightmare on Elm Streetu0026quot; – so the portents were not good, which just adds to the surprise. If I were to be critical, some of the dialogue at times is a little TOO clever for its own good and smacks of Aaron Sorkin over-exposition: the comment about u0026quot;They have a word for it in Hungaryu0026quot; for example went right over my head.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDenis Villeneuve (u0026quot;Sicariou0026quot;) deftly directs, leaving the pace of the story glacially slow in places to let the audience deduce what is going on at their own speed. This will NOT be to the liking of movie fans who like their films in a wham-bam of CGI, but was very much to my liking. The film in fact has very little exposition, giving you lots to think about after the credits roll: there were elements of the story (such as her book) that still generated debate with my better half on the drive home.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAmy Adams and Jeremy Renner are first rate and an effectively moody score by Jóhann Jóhannsson (u0026quot;Sicariou0026quot;; u0026quot;The Theory of Everythingu0026quot;) round off the other high-point credits for me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn extraordinary film, this is a must see for sci-fi fans but also for lovers of good cinema and well-crafted stories.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e(Agree? Disagree? Please visit bob-the-movie-man.com for the graphical version of this review and to comment. Thanks).”