Streaming: Prime Video
Warnings:
Mild Profanity
Intense Imagery
Rating: PG-13
Arrival is a sci-fi drama about a linguist who communicates with alien lifeforms for the U.S. military after twelve mysterious spacecrafts appear across the globe. Arrival is one of the most logical and plausible alien films ever made, its completely jarring in result of such a clever yet simple depiction of an alien invasion. Written by Eric Heisserer and directed by Denis Villeneuve, the original story is actually based on a novella called Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. The film stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Tzi Ma. Arrival appeared on numerous critics’ year-end lists and was selected by the American Film Institute as one of ten “Movies of the Year”. The film received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, and won for Best Sound Editing. It also received numerous other nominations including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for Adams and Best Original Score for Jóhann Jóhannsson. The film was a huge success, the budget for the film was $47 million and it grossed $203.4 million in the box office. Arrival received positive reviews and has an approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 94% based on 428 reviews. The film truly makes the audience think beyond themselves and forces them to ponder the possibility of alien lifeforms existing outside the typical perspective. Through the acting, screenplay and visual effects, Arrival is one of the best sci-fi films created.
The screenplay is an element of the film that took a lot of work and a great deal of convincing to get the film made. Screenwriter Heisserer came across the story through another of Chiang’s stories Understand and continued to read through Chiang’s collected works. When he came upon Story of Your Life, he had a profound emotional reaction and decided to try and adapt the story into a film script because he wanted to share it with a wider audience. After Heisserer completed the initial script, he pitched it to production companies for several years without finding anyone who was interested, he almost gave up on the project entirely. However, after he successfully completed and produced the film Hours, other people became interested in his work. Eventually he found a production company that was intrigued by the script and they started working closely with him, they refined the script before seeking a director and distribution studio. Luckily Heisserer didn’t give up and Arrival became the amazing film it is.
Acting is another important element that makes the film great. Amy Adams does a wonderful job portraying her character (Louise) in a way that doesn’t come off as a typical sci-fi professor, nor does Louise seem ignorant at any point like some archetypal sci-fi characters. Adams portrays Louise in a way that is complex, attentive, and brilliant which is a necessary portrayal for sci-fi films. This is especially important because women are oftentimes not depicted in the best light when it comes to films that have been male-dominant in the past. Alongside Amy Adams, the other actors are believable characters and do not disappoint by any means. The acting overall in Arrival goes above and beyond the usual sci-fi and it certainly deserves all of the accolades it received for acting.
Possibly the most important element of the film that is worth noting is the visual effects. Usually this is where sci-fi films fail, they depict aliens in a way that is too close to the human anatomy or they make them look comical or sometimes scary. The depiction of aliens and their ships are not the usual representation most audiences are accustomed to. 15 Eunomia is the inspiration for the heptapod ships, for those of you who do not know what 15 Eunomia is, according to Wikipedia, “it is a very large asteroid in the inner asteroid belt. It is the largest of the stony asteroids and somewhere between the 8th and 12th largest main-belt asteroid overall.” The creators of Arrival were clearly thoughtful when it came to representing the aliens and the space in their ships. Rodeo FX is the visual effects company that assisted in creating the aliens and their crafts, they completed a total of 60 visual shots for the film. Their biggest challenge in the film was the sequence when Louise and the other scientist Ian enter the alien craft. Additionally, the production designer, Patrice Vermette stated that a big influence on the look of the film came from the works of the artist James Turrell. Specifically, the design of the meeting room (also known as the interview room) on the alien craft, the big screen in the room was a recurring element to unite Louise’s world. The screen is supposed to resemble a whiteboard in a classroom referencing the fact that Louise is a linguistic professor. These visual choices within the film adds to its greatness. The fact that these types of visual details were used to accomplish physical and abstract references truly shows the artistic craft behind filmmaking. Without this attention to detail in the visual storytelling, this film wouldn’t have been the same.
Arrival is a film that you’ll never forget, it forces the audience to think about how aliens look, how they travel, and how they communicate. This film is one of the most conceivable depictions of an alien invasion and it is incredibly scary for that reason. Arrival is completely different from most other sci-fi oriented films, from the acting, the screenplay and concept as well as the visual effects, it doesn’t disappoint. If you wish to get lost in another reality that makes you contemplate aliens on another level, I highly recommend Arrival.