lordmyk | Arrival (2016)

There are going to be some movies in my collection that are going to be difficult to write about since the only reason I own them is because they came with something else and the only thing I remember about them is that they exist. 2016's Arrival is one of those movies.

You might remember hearing about it, though all I could recall was that it involved aliens coming to Earth and a linguist trying to talk to them. This made me think it was going to be one of those cerebral science fiction movies, where we see the aliens once at the end, if at all, and most of it is spent with people talking about things at each other. And it's not exactly that, but also isn't not that.

The plot is, as relayed above, incredibly simple and does concern aliens coming to Earth and humanity trying to communicate with them. There's a number of ships hovering above different locations and each country has dispatched their own team to try to figure out what these aliens want. America's team includes linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and while there is an awful lot of talking most of it is done with aliens we actually get to see. They're called heptapods (as they look like octopuses but with seven legs) and it was nice to see a slower movie like this know that people want to see aliens in a movie about aliens and while the plot is basic this isn't a bad thing and watching Louise and Ian slowly figure out how to communicate with the heptapods is rewarding. This isn't to say that the movie isn't without conflict, provided by China's team thinking that the heptapods want to give factions of humanity weapons they can use to destroy each other. The sudden influx of actual stakes is sort of jarring but underpins the movie's message that being able to communicate with each other is of the utmost importance. Which brings me to how that plot resolves, though I'd skip the next paragraph if you'd like to avoid spoilers.

One of the major threads of the movie is that Louise had a daughter who died of an unspecified yet deadly disease, and so what we're watching is a character who has lost everything and is trying to rebuild a life without her family. We see flashbacks of the pair, as the daughter gets older and closer to her ultimate fate, interspersed with Louise and her team making progress with the heptapods. At one point, Ian brings up that sometimes learning the language of another culture rewires your brain so you think more like them, which seemed like a throwaway line until, after one flashback, Louise asks who the girl she keeps thinking of is and we realize that her brain has been rewired to be more like the heptapods, who don't perceive time in a linear fashion and these flashbacks are actually flash-forwards. This allows Louise to successfully stop China's hostilities and set her on path in life leading mankind towards understanding though with the knowledge that whatever good she does her yet unborn daughter will ultimately die. It's an effective twist and should I ever watch the movie again, I'll keep it in mind to see if it re-contextualizes what happens.

Spoilers are now over. And so is the review, more or less: I'd recommend it if you're looking for a science fiction movie that's a bit more cerebral, though this does make its inclusion in a three-pack declaring itself to be all action-packed sci-fi somewhat baffling. It reminds me of a movie from the seventies, with its more deliberate pacing. Plus it's always nice to see a movie about aliens actually deliver on the aliens.

Our next movie will the The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and after that, Dr. Phibes Rises Again since I'm doing direct sequels after their first installments when possible.

QUICK BITS

MOVIE: Arrival (2016)
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Cultural osmosis
OBTAINED: Walmart cheap bin
WATCHED BEFORE: Nope
WATCHED WITH: Alone
GOOD/BAD/MEH: Good

Arrival (2016)

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