Review: Arrival

FINDING THE WORDS Amy Adams stars as Dr Louise Banks in Arrival.

Cinema
Ciara Galvin

THE film ‘Leap Year’ has to be one of the worst films ever made. Like ever. If you haven’t seen it, don’t. It’s a patronising view of Ireland as seen through the eyes of a Yank played by Amy Adams. It’s even worse than ‘PS, I love you’.
Thankfully, Adams recovered from that holy show of a film and the very same year (2010) went on to shine in ‘The Fighter’ with Mark Wahlberg. She later established herself as a force to be reckoned with in ‘American Hustle’ in 2013.
Her most-recent role, that of a linguistics expert in sci-fi alien movie ‘Arrival’, once again shows just how talented the 42 year old is.
The film begins with an intro narrated by central protagonist Dr Louise Banks (Adams). We begin to understand why she leads a somewhat lonely life and dedicates herself to her work.
From the opening, it was clear that this wasn’t just going to be another ‘War of the Worlds’ or ‘Interstellar’ with high-octane drama. ‘Arrival’ is much slower, much more thought provoking.
The film centres around Banks and a scientist Ian (Jeremy Renner) trying to communicate with aliens who have landed at 12 different locations around the world, including Montana.
The first glimpse of the spaceships is a cinematic feast, shot from a distance as clouds roll over mountains. Throughout this intelligent sci-fi the cinematography is top class, there is no  destruction of well-known landmarks around the world à la ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ (I realise that was climate change and not aliens). It is what we don’t see that creates the feeling of panic, the unpredictability of the plot and the pressure on Banks and Ian to find out what the aliens want.
Unlike many before it, ‘Arrival’ goes further, going into the eerie spaceship to allow its characters attempt to communicate with the extraterrestrials.
Adams comes into her own as she communicates in these scenes, while Renner’s character takes more of a backseat. Forrest Whitaker, who plays Colonel Weber, holds more of a watchful-eye part in the whole thing, just wanting to assess the threat these foreign beings may present to Earth.
Geopolitics comes into play, as the 12 teams of Earth scientists around the world have regular conferences calls, but do not reveal anything about their own particular communications with each alien landing. Miscommunication leads to potential disaster.
This is a very visual film. It remains more subtle than its sci-fi predecessors while keeping audiences’ interest through the very design of the aliens and the communication puzzle that needs to be solved.
Director Denis Villeneuve, whose other work includes ‘Sicario’, has created a piece that will have audiences questioning what they saw hours and days after leaving its screening.
This ain’t you’re average sci fi.

Rating: 7 out of 10