Arrival is an intellectually smart movie with stunning visuals and a fresh take about how humans will handle an Alien presence.
A Twist in the Tale you wont Predict
I think, without spoiling anything, that the best thing about arrival is the personal realization, kind of arrival of insight, that happens with the lead actress rather than an arrival of the aliens. It is a twist of the tale masterpiece.
When you watch Arrival trailer, it looks like a B movie…a drab, science fiction story about aliens who arrive in pods and humans who scramble to communicate with them, with some countries treating them as a threat to mankind.
Career first, life second
But beneath that simple story line is a story about a Linguistics professor Louise Banks played by Amy Adams, who at the beginning of the movie loses the very thing that matters to her most – her daughter. The loss makes her focus on her career, withdrawing socially but intellectually mastering the weird intricacies of languages.She gets so absorbed in her work she doesn’t even notice the aliens arrival – nor is she seeming affected once she discovers the news. Everyone is panicking and changing towns but for Louise, she goes to class expecting to teach, only to find an empty class.
Obviously the US government comes knocking on her door in the form of the academy award winning actor Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker is most known for acting as Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland which won him an Oscar). He recruits the reluctant Louis to do join his team and help establish communications with the aliens.
Outstanding Performance
Louis performance even eclipsed that of her team mate and soon to be boyfriend, played by Jeremy Renner (from the Avengers), and actually overshadows all the actors in the movie leaving only her, the aliens and the alien language as the focal point of the movie.
The suspense regarding an intergalactic war and action scenes of the Russians and Chinese could have been done better, and her less than convincing action that changed the course of an entire super power is nothing short of Hollywood fiction, but generally Arrival is a well told movie, nominated yesterday for an Oscar Academy Award and a must watch for those who treasure an intellectually smart movie.
