Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival is an expertly crafted and jaw-droppingly heartfelt story that takes the traditional 'alien invasion' sci-fi genre and flips it on its head in a surprising and unexpected way.
While most audiences will walk into the film expecting to see the traditional guns, angry American men with clenched jaws barking out orders from tanks, and a lot of colourful lasers, even more will walk out with a far more open mind to the genre and most likely a lot of tears.
Amy Adams shines in her role as Louise Banks, a linguist who is whisked away to a remote location where an alien ship has landed, alongside many others across the world, and is tasked with communicating with creatures that can only be described as the genius invention of an over-the-moon graphics team. The visual language they use to show how the aliens communicate and the way Banks and her associate decipher and de-riddle this language is an awe-inspiring spectacle that will surely leave any lover of words with the sudden desire to go out and get a degree in linguistics.
Arrival cleverly inserts snippets of various scenarios into the mix, using bright colours, close-ups and blurred filters to create a dreamy montage that contrasts vibrantly with the overlarge steely-grey world that is the feature of the film, causing the audience to assume that it is a flashback from long ago. By the end of the film, in a revelation that is complete with a tense, violin-filled soundtrack, the intention and complexity of these scenes is revealed and another layer of epiphanies and realisations overturn the already inspired mind of the viewer.
Arrival is the ideal film for one wanting to experience a unique, creative, heartfelt and engaging experience, complete with the trials and joys of romantic and familial love, and the wonder of discovery. It will leave any viewer asking and asking and asking again about what we still don’t know of the universe around us.