After examining the dark world of drug cartels on the southern U.S. border in last year's Sicario, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve goes interstellar with a healthy does of hopefulness in the brilliant Arrival.
Aliens have landed a dozen spacecraft at various sites around Earth, sending the planet into a frenzy. A linguistics professor (Adams) and a physics expert (Renner) are tasked with establishing communication with the extraterrestrials by deciphering their inexplicable language. As they feverishly work to discover the true intentions of the visitors, the world teeters on the brink of conflict as several nations begin to see the aliens as a hostile threat.
Arrival is an intimate film that examines enormous ideas. It's a skillfully crafted slow burn that rewards viewers’ patience while taking the fascinating concept of a language barrier with otherworldly beings and wrapping it in a deeply emotional story about the nature of human grief and the mysteries of fate.
Working with a concise script and armed with a brisk sense of pacing, Villeneuve is in top form here, crafting elegant images with a keen eye for depth. Don't expect vast scenes of cities being toppled by alien aggressors; this is about as far from Independence Day as it gets. The creatures themselves (who are shown) are both conceptually innovative and awe-inspiring – another testament to the film's meticulous attention to detail and bold, daring approach.
Arrival maintains – and even raises the bar for – what an intelligent science-fiction film can accomplish.
