Arrival (2016) - Review
Originally published May 2017Arrival is one of the most interesting movies I've seen in a while. It's a movie that feels like it was almost catered to me, in some ways. It captures and manipulates a subject matter that always manages to hold my interest. It does so in a rather upfront and interesting way that surprised me and left me wanting more. While I won't say that Arrival will overtake any of my favorites, it still is a movie worth watching multiple times.
When I watched Arrival, I couldn't help but think of Interstellar. While I liked Interstellar more than most people seemed to, I still think Arrival is a better movie. In some ways, Arrival is the movie Interstellar wishes it was. It manages to accomplish its characterization and its plot without becoming bloated with too many extraneous details and contrived circumstances, for the most part. It's not perfect, but Arrival is efficient in its storytelling and does a brilliant job of achieving what it sets out to do.
Image: Paramount
Pros
Amy Adams does a great job in the starring role
Fresh alien design
Clever editing tricks play around with the story and perspective
Neat camera tricks to play up surreal effects
Most characters are as smart as they're supposed to be
Well-written dialogue
Thought-provoking
Cons
Forrest Whitaker needs to choose an accent or just not use one when he acts
Characters aren't that interesting
Suspend your disbelief and accept the theories they throw at you if you want to enjoy the movie
A few contrived circumstances set the climax in motion
A little heavy-handed on some of the "emotional" parts
Plots & Thoughts
Arrival opens with a series of scenes that involve several decades of time, covering an array of emotions: from elation to crushing despair. It's similar to the opening of Up. Except Up did not do so with the beautifully lugubrious song, On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter, playing over it. While I love the song, it can be a bit overbearing in the emotional response that it's trying to evoke, especially in the first five minutes of a movie. In some ways, this opening actually weakens my opinion because I feel like I'm being forced to experience emotion for a character I barely know.
Image: Paramount
Regardless of the overwhelming sentimentality of the opening, Dr. Louise (Amy Adams) goes through the extreme stages of love, happiness, and loss within a few minutes, before finally we're thrust into the day the aliens arrive on earth. Through some smart storytelling techniques and a bit of exposition from Major Can't Do an Accent (Forrest Whitaker), we learn that Louise is a brilliant linguist who is very knowledgeable about how language works among different cultures and is even fluent in some of them. Due to her abilities and knowledge, the US military wants her help in communicating with the aliens. Joined by Dr. Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Louise discovers new details about the aliens and their language.
And that's about all I can tell you. The rest of it should be left in the dark because the tension of the whole film is somewhat built around not knowing what the aliens want and how people are going to react to them. They arrive in multiple countries across the world, so there is a constant debate about what there is to gain for each country in interacting with them. Arrival takes a very political tone in the sense that its mounting tension is not just on whether the aliens are a threat, but how dangerous the humans in this story are, as well. In some ways, the movie is mostly about the idea that if we all worked together instead of fearing each other, there would be no conflict.
Image: Paramount
I think the only real significant problem I have with Arrival is the lack of interesting characters, besides Louise. Everyone else follows her lead and doesn't really feel like they have much of a story to tell. She is the enigma of the group, and even she's not the most intriguing person. Even the biggest strength of the film, the editing, undermines her character a little bit. The editing in Arrival is phenomenal. It helps tell the story in a creative and interesting way. However, because of the different cuts to moments in her memories, it’s more difficult to relate to her. I came away from Arrival as though I had just read a character sheet about Louise, as opposed to getting a real sense of who she was. I didn't see a natural progression of her character. Nonetheless, a small price to pay for what the editing achieves in the end.
TL;DR (Conclusion)
Arrival is a great and innovative movie. It's a refreshing new take on drama with a science-fiction twist that plays around with time and storytelling in unique and brilliant ways. Arrival was intriguing from start to finish. While I don't think it's as fun or emotionally enthralling as some of its other sci-fi contemporaries, I'd happily watch it again.
Do you agree or disagree? Tell me what you think in the comments!
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