Review- Arrival



Arrival is a film by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario) and it stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. It's the story of 12 alien ships landing at seemingly random points on the earth. Amy Adams is called in to help decode their language as she's one of America's best linguists. They will have to cooperate with the aliens and especially the other people on Earth to try and work out what these aliens want. First off, I want to say that this is the kind of story we need right now as it's about how co-operation can actually save the world, something we all need to look around and remember. Other than that. it's an incredibly impressive story to watch unfold. It has a narrative complexity that seems overwhelming when it's finally laid clear but after thought, it's a story that makes genuine sense and addresses fascinating concepts that I'm not sure I've seen addressed in a sci-fi film before, definitely not in this depth. There's a reason people are calling this one of the smartest sci-fi films in years, it works your brain but still makes sense by the end.

As should be expected, the acting in this film is all top notch. The supporting cast do great jobs at making this world believable. It's all about three core performances, those of Whittaker, Renner and Adams. Forest Whittaker is a stern and intimidating Colonel who has more depth than it initially seems. He's a great actor and gives another great performance but it isn't his film to steal. Jeremy Renner is great too. Again, underused but he plays an important role and this further shows the actual depth he has gradually been building after a stand out role in The Hurt Locker. The clear star of the show and easily the best performance in the whole film is Amy Adams. Her role isn't just one of those characters that people can point at and say "what a strong female character". Sure, her character needs to be female and she is a very strong character but even were the character male, we'd be looking at a fantastic lead for a sci-fi film. The deep emotional journey she goes on is one that we are taken on too and she serves as a fantastic character to explore this strange new world of possibilities with. Somehow, Adams has managed to top her already wonderful performance in
Nocturnal Animals in the space of a week. From an acting and character perspective, I can't fault it.

The cinematographer may have changed since Sicario (the wonderful Roger Deakins) but yet again, Denis Villeneuve has created a film that looks absolutely wonderful. This time he's paired with Bradford Young for cinematography and the results are just incredible. It has a very down to earth feel (no pun intended) and for the first third, almost feels like a monster movie, with the restraint towards actually showing the aliens and preferring to give humans the full attention. This does later change but the aliens are always shown with restraint and it is unmistakably a film about the humans. Having said that, one of my favourite shots of the movie is the one where we are first introduced to the alien ship as it's scale is shown, next to the human base. With this is incredible sound design. The opening and closing song are the same, a great decision that allows for a reflection on where the narrative has taken us. The sounds of the aliens are also amazing and it's for this reason I really suggest seeing the film in a proper cinema. You want to be surrounded by this creepy noise and feel the aliens around you so that you can get properly immersed in the film and lose yourself in it's often jaw dropping visuals.

As you may have guessed, I just really really love this film. It's hard to say right now where it stands in my rankings for best films I've seen this year but it's definitely up there in a year that has finally started to give us some truly great films at last. See it for the visuals, see it for the performances and definitely see it for the mind blowing, mind bending and consistently impressing story. It is a genuinely essential film so it has to get a


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