That she would do this and the very different Nocturnal Animals within the same short window, both daring but singularly amazing turns, seems improbable if not downright impossible. Ever since her very deserving Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Junebug in 2005, this artist has made bold affecting choices. Regardless of where the coin falls, Amy Adams grounds the drama quotient for all viewers with a deeply emotional performance. For some audiences, it will make them say 'Huh?' For the filmgoers that say 'Hmm,' however, Arrival is a welcome departure from the cut and dry space franchises currently Trekking and Warring across screens. Like those last two searing dramas, it still concentrates on troubled characters and maintains a funereal tone but the canvas is more expansive and less conclusive. Villenueve's work has always been bleak and gripping but his latest definitely resembles Malick's The Tree of Life more than Prisoners or Sicario. The beauty of nature being interrupted by an obstructive force and opaque flashbacks/flash forwards are two Malick touchstones that both feature prominently in Arrival. Terrence Malick never made a straight sci-fi flick but, if he did, it might look a lot like this. The end result is both quantitative and qualitative, though director Denis Villenueve had some obvious influences. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar before it, Arrival wraps you up in an atmospheric spectacle while leaving a lightyear's worth of room for interpretation. Far from straight-forward, the film mindbends and timebends with achingly gorgeous photography that frames the locations as much as the characters. She doesn't think linearly and neither does the film. Our eyes, ears and mind, Banks is a linguist emotionally scarred by a tragedy. Contemplative is the word for this thinking man's alien invasion flick. In this PG-13-rated sci-fi drama, linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. Show Less Show MoreĪ beautifully acted and cerebral piece of sci-fi that's almost as smart as it portends to be, Arrival nonetheless captivates with a thought-provoking puzzler that brings to mind Close Encounters of the Third Kind.had Terrence Malick directed it, that is. Opt for another viewing of Close Encounters instead. I enjoy heady sci-fi like Ex Machina and Interstellar as recent examples, but Arrival comes up well short with the only truly clever aspects being the aliens' writing method and the title. There's a fairly nifty revelation at the very end, but it's relied upon far too heavily to have a Shyamalan effect and cannot salvage the dreary experience until then. Naturally the military gets trigger-happy solely in order to inject some form of tension which is utterly predictable. She's a highly skilled linguist recruited by the military to communicate with these aliens, but none of her studying makes any difference as her only breakthroughs occur through memory flashes interacting with her daughter. Only Jeremy Renner shows any signs of life, everyone else is sleepwalking including Amy Adams who is blander than Top 40 radio. Their ships look stupid, the aliens themselves look stupider, and there's generally a lack of awe at this event. Big disappointment considering the nominations, which makes it one of the most overrated movies of 2016. If our first contact with an alien race turns out to be as boring as this movie, then I hope it doesn't happen.
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