Arrival

Is there life out there in the cosmos? To coin a thought from a different science fiction film: it would be a waste of space if there wasn’t life out there. Many people, though, feel that if there is life on other planets, they would be as trapped by the laws of physics in their solar systems as we are, unable to travel outside of that because of the speed-of-light barrier. So any film tackling this concept would have to either explain this away via something like Star Trek’s warp speed or just ignore it and move on. But there is also a third option, one that is rarely explored. A species that doesn’t experience time the same way we do. This is a far more complex concept to get across, but when it is done well, it opens the world to entirely new avenues to explore.

Everybody needs to communicate to some degree or another. Whether that is in the form of verbal communication, gestures, imagery, or, to pull a concept out of science fiction, telepathy. Language, verbal or otherwise, pulls us together as a group, but it can also divide us. If you believe the Bible, God cursed the people for banding together and building a tower to reach heaven. He cursed them with diverse languages to prevent them from communicating anymore and pursuing this foolish endeavor. Ever since then, man has strived to understand language and how to communicate with those who speak a different one. When I was growing up, you had two choices: learn a new language or walk around carrying a language dictionary. People nowadays have an app on their phone that can do all of the translating. There are also AR glasses that can do the same thing. But what do you do if it is an obscure language, or an unknown language, one so foreign that the task of deciphering it can seem daunting? How about if the one speaking it is only giving you part of the translation and requiring you to work with other people who don’t even speak your own language in order to decipher it?

I, like many casual moviegoers, first heard the name Denis Villeneuve during his action dramas in the mid-2010s. This Canadian-born screenwriter/director began his career back in 1998 but didn’t fall onto my radar until 2015’s Sicario. It wasn’t until the following year, though, that I started associating his name specifically with what I would call prestige pictures. The Academy Awards did that for me when his high-concept film, Arrival, hit theaters. He would follow that up with the visually stunning Blade Runner 2049 —a film that is amazing to watch but failed to find an audience— and the critically and commercially lauded Dune films. 

Denis does not make popcorn entertainment, even if some of his films do appeal to that demographic. He makes cognitive films, movies that explore things like the human condition or our stubborn insistence on not trusting those in other parts of the world. Arrival is a prime example of this one. The film opens with the arrival of twelve identical space ships landing at seemingly random spots across the globe. Rather than banding together with our fellow nations, many of whom are joint partners in the UN, each affected nation instead focuses on the ship in their own yard without much, if any, communication overseas. This refusal to share information gained seems against basic survival instinct as, if this new outside source is hostile, having as much information on them globally would seem like the best plan of attack. Instead, no one wants to be the one to extend the olive branch to another country. 

What the United States Government does instead is consult with Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist, and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a physicist. Louise and Ian travel to Montana, where the ship has landed, and attempt to communicate with the visitors. What they discover is that the aliens, squid-like creatures with seven tentacles, communicate using a complex written language with circular imagery representing whole phrases, logograms. As Louise works endlessly on deciphering the alien language, she starts having flashback-like visions of her daughter, whom she lost to an illness at a young age. 

Xenophobia begins to overtake the various nations as bits of the alien’s message are translated, seemingly indicating the possibility of hostile intentions. This causes the affected nations to further cut off communication with the outside, especially China, who sees the message the United States got, “offer weapon”, as literally meaning providing the USA with advanced warfare. But Louise begins to think that the visitors are intentionally breaking up their communication between all the affected nations as a way to force the nations to communicate and work together to receive the gift of their language and true intentions. 

Denis’ message with this film cannot be more obvious. We’ve all heard the phrase, “It’s a small world,” and the realities are that the more technologically advanced we get, the smaller that world gets. As a planet, there is no country we could not get to in less than a day. Xenophobia should not be a thing anymore, yet we have countries like North Korea that are basically locked down behind their borders, and many other nations that have the mentality that you are not welcome to visit. There is so much suspicion of our fellow human beings that we tend to forget that we are all of the same race and that if you go back far enough into our past, we are all related to a degree. 

Alan Moore posited in his comic book creation Watchman that if the world faced a potentially world-ending foe, they would set aside their differences and unify against this new enemy. Denis Villeneuve’s film Arrival doesn’t see it as quite so straightforward. Yet Arrival feels more optimistic in the end. Watchman is nihilistic in its look at humanity, and the ending really cements that mentality. When we get the conclusion of Arrival, there is a sense that, while nations may not trust each other, there is a desire out there to try. There will always be those out there who react with their emotions rather than their heads, but given the opportunity, we want to work together for the greater good. And what better person to get that across than a linguist, someone whose bread and butter is communicating through foreign languages? 

Amy Adams is one of those actresses who we instinctually like. She has a quality to her that radiates, and it is often hard for her to be a character that falls outside that sphere. Julie Andrews had that same problem and had to turn to her husband at the time, Blake Edwards, to write her a character that broke her out of that mode. Amy has had to do much the same thing with some of her more recent projects, pushing away from the more family-friendly affairs that were her breakout roles. Arrival predates that a bit, but she is given a juicy role in what could have easily been a very talkative film. She is a broken woman, dealing with a lot of grief over the loss of her daughter. This is a major traumatic event that defines her character, and it is one that the aliens have latched onto when dealing with her. Her relationship with her daughter opens the film and then is parsed out a little at a time throughout the film as we get to know Louise better. It also ties into what the “heptapods” are there for in the first place.

This is a relatively low-budget film, which helped it turn a profit at the box office. Denis’ work going forward would not be so modest, and this is a major reason why his sequel to Blade Runner failed in the end. Had it cost half as much, it would have been deemed a success. Arrival is just as heady as Blade Runner 2049 and made nearly the same in ticket sales, but only cost a third of Blade Runner 2049’s budget to produce. It also helped that Arrival is less than two hours long. 

Arrival is not going to be for everyone. It doesn’t have much action or excitement, and it spends much of its runtime exploring its themes. It also fails to develop any of the main characters except for Louise. Jeremy Renner, who was still at the height of his career in the Marvel Universe at this time, is given nothing to do except offer the occasional bit of encouragement. Forrest Whitaker is also here, playing a generic US Army Colonel who never quite gets to the point where he trusts the team he has pulled together for this mission. There are great actors here, but only Amy Adams is allowed room enough to shine. 

If you are looking for an alien movie with lots of explosions and action, this is not it. Ultimately, this isn’t really about aliens at all but an examination of why we don’t communicate with each other as much as we should. Life and the world around us gets in the way, and we let it happen. We would find that peace and cooperation would be more forthcoming if we were all willing to just sit down and talk. Alas, that is not the world we live in, and unfortunately, things are only getting worse. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Dan Levine, Shawn Levy, David Linde, and Aaron Ryder

Best Director: Denis Villeneuve

Best Adapted Screenplay: Eric Heisserer

Best Cinematography: Bradford Young

Best Film Editing: Joe Walker

Best Production Design: Pail Hotte and Patrice Vermette

Best Sound Editing: Sylvain Bellemare (won)

Best Sound Mixing: Claude La Haye and Bernard Gariépy Strobl

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Release Date: November 11, 2016

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tzi Ma

Directed By: Denis Villeneuve