- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- Deep down, I should be thankful that science fiction films have become more ambitious over the last decade. After years of forcing audiences to gorge on bad Star Wars imitations and big-studio CGI snorefests, the sci-fi buffet has expanded to include a steady supply of thoughtful, often independent, and sometimes international delicacies. But for every visually inventive treat like Chronicle, Moon, or Under the Skin, it seems like we are asked to choke down a painfully pretentious lump like Upstream Color, Interstellar, or this film, Arrival. I will gladly admit that Arrival is by far the most palatable of the bad examples I just listed, but all three are films whose thematic and philosophical aspirations far exceed the movies that try to convey them.
- The basic setup in Arrival is similar to literally dozens of other sci-fi films, namely that aliens land on Earth without anyone initially knowing why. Unlike some of its corny and/or action-packed antecedents, however, this film focuses on the struggle to establish a common baseline language with the aliens. Leading this charge is linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams), whose interest in alien communication is often overshadowed by apparent memories of her dead daughter. She is initially brought into the fold by the no-nonsense Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker), who also invites theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to the party. If you're wondering how a theoretical physicist will be of any use in communicating with aliens, you are not alone. The film charitably grants him one major accomplishment, but sensibly has Dr. Banks do most of the heavy lifting.
- On to the aliens and their language. The strange visitors themselves, referred to as "heptapods" in reference to their seven limbs, are towering, elephantine beasts that lack any obvious sensory organs. They communicate by manipulating squid ink into visually striking ringlike patterns that the translation team eventually begins to associate with concepts. Unfortunately, in the weeks it takes Dr. Banks to suss out a vague message about gifts and weapons (described by Dr. Donnelly's other contribution: an awkward voiceover), the governments of the world reach the same reactionary position they have reliably been taking since the alien panic invasion films of the 1950's. It is only through Dr. Banks' intervention, including a surprise phone call to Chinese General Shang (Tzi Ma), that the human race manages to avoid violent international and/or interstellar war.
- But now we have to address how Dr. Banks achieved her big breakthrough. It turns out that learning the alien language grants the speaker the ability to perceive time differently. This permits the increasingly dour Dr. Banks to see visions of her future, including those of a dying daughter who hasn't even been born yet. While I'll grant bonus points to that idea for originality, I'm forced to deduct twice as many points for stuffing such an absurd sci-fi conceit into a movie that otherwise tried to treat language plausibly. Once the ridiculous future cat is out of the future bag, however, other questions rapidly bubble to the surface. Why didn't the aliens who can see the future take the time to learn some Earth languages? Is 2D visual communication really the best option for a species that lives in a foggy environment?? Where are their stinking eyes??? A good sci-fi film uses some combination of spectacle and visual panache to convince the audience to ignore these nagging doubts. This one invited the questions to take over and made me wish that I could have seen myself departing this film before my own arrival.
