Arrival poses evocative questions about humanity
"Arrival" (2016, USA), Denis Villeneuve's Venice-entry new film, can serve as a study-in-contrast to his earlier "Sicario". While the latter film takes a misanthropic view of humanity, one that is steeped in criminality and violence that find no means of redemption, the former, on the other hand, expresses love for humanity by way of compassion, understanding, respect and cooperation, all under the guise of an alien-invasion sci-fi story. Yes, "Arrival" is an alien-invasion film, but unlike other films of that kind where everyone is practically doing everything they can to defeat the extraterrestrial visitors, here offensive attack just becomes the last resort, more often than not called upon by the more aggressive nations (in the film's context, at least).
As in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", humans discover unique and special ways to communicate with the aliens, in accordance with their own kind of "language". But "Arrival", unlike Spielberg's film, isn't exactly the family-entertainment type that's geared towards the kids. It's more of an adult mindbending fare: more intelligent and profound. It posits challenging questions about the nature of time, language, destiny and geopolitical unity - in essence, about humanity itself. Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heiserrer (who adapted to the big screen an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang) never for once lose their hold on such questions, as they never drown the film with slambang and CGI-laden spectacle and special effects. Cheap gimmickry isn't the filmmakers' concern here.
More akin to how Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky would tell such a story on film, the director and the screenwriter are to be admired for fashioning the profound tale in a deliberate, quiet and subtle way, providing the viewers with some food for thought as they go along with the film. This isn't to say though that "Arrival" isn't likewise a visually-stimulating film. With the aid of cinematographer Bradford Young's ("A Most Violent Year") evocative lensing, the images in the film come off as dreamy, surreal and mysterious. If that sequence depicting the characters' "first contact" with the extraterrestrial species, carried by an oblong-shaped spacecraft, isn't enough to get you hooked on the film all throughout, then I don't know what else is. For once, the idea that we are not alone in the universe conjures something both terrifying and wonderful. We somehow hold back from delving deeper into it, but then it's not something that we don't entirely welcome.
"Arrival" is edited in such a way that something that we initially expected of a character turns out to be not what it exactly is. This is particularly true of Amy Adams' character (as Louise Banks, a linguist who is enlisted by the US military to decipher what it is that the aliens are trying to communicate to us). The arc that her character eventually undergoes carries an emotional heft to the entire film and the message that it aims to convey. For her part, the actress works through all the emotional development of her character in a quietly perceptive and moving way. It's one subdued and subtle performance that's definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination (perhaps could've replaced Meryl Streep's nth nomination for "Florence Foster Jenkins"?).
The film's underlying message is that there's something hopeful and utilitarian to be gained if, rather than outright hostile aggression, benevolent communication is what we bring along with us when faced with an initially unexplainable, magnanimous and threatening scenario like an alien invasion. If language is what determines thought-processes (one of the ideas put forward by the film), then how we communicate with someone - or something - will most likely influence the manner in which we will respond to a given situation, predicament or challenge. Villeneuve may have cloaked the film with a kind of blockbuster genre, but underneath is really a fervent call for global peace, unity and cooperation. A bright future that, in all of our existence, is yet to arrive.
(Amy Adams comes up with benevolent ways to interact with extraterrestrial visitors in Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival")
As in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", humans discover unique and special ways to communicate with the aliens, in accordance with their own kind of "language". But "Arrival", unlike Spielberg's film, isn't exactly the family-entertainment type that's geared towards the kids. It's more of an adult mindbending fare: more intelligent and profound. It posits challenging questions about the nature of time, language, destiny and geopolitical unity - in essence, about humanity itself. Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heiserrer (who adapted to the big screen an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang) never for once lose their hold on such questions, as they never drown the film with slambang and CGI-laden spectacle and special effects. Cheap gimmickry isn't the filmmakers' concern here.
More akin to how Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky would tell such a story on film, the director and the screenwriter are to be admired for fashioning the profound tale in a deliberate, quiet and subtle way, providing the viewers with some food for thought as they go along with the film. This isn't to say though that "Arrival" isn't likewise a visually-stimulating film. With the aid of cinematographer Bradford Young's ("A Most Violent Year") evocative lensing, the images in the film come off as dreamy, surreal and mysterious. If that sequence depicting the characters' "first contact" with the extraterrestrial species, carried by an oblong-shaped spacecraft, isn't enough to get you hooked on the film all throughout, then I don't know what else is. For once, the idea that we are not alone in the universe conjures something both terrifying and wonderful. We somehow hold back from delving deeper into it, but then it's not something that we don't entirely welcome.
"Arrival" is edited in such a way that something that we initially expected of a character turns out to be not what it exactly is. This is particularly true of Amy Adams' character (as Louise Banks, a linguist who is enlisted by the US military to decipher what it is that the aliens are trying to communicate to us). The arc that her character eventually undergoes carries an emotional heft to the entire film and the message that it aims to convey. For her part, the actress works through all the emotional development of her character in a quietly perceptive and moving way. It's one subdued and subtle performance that's definitely worthy of an Oscar nomination (perhaps could've replaced Meryl Streep's nth nomination for "Florence Foster Jenkins"?).
The film's underlying message is that there's something hopeful and utilitarian to be gained if, rather than outright hostile aggression, benevolent communication is what we bring along with us when faced with an initially unexplainable, magnanimous and threatening scenario like an alien invasion. If language is what determines thought-processes (one of the ideas put forward by the film), then how we communicate with someone - or something - will most likely influence the manner in which we will respond to a given situation, predicament or challenge. Villeneuve may have cloaked the film with a kind of blockbuster genre, but underneath is really a fervent call for global peace, unity and cooperation. A bright future that, in all of our existence, is yet to arrive.
(Amy Adams comes up with benevolent ways to interact with extraterrestrial visitors in Denis Villeneuve's "Arrival")
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