Arrival - 2001 for 2016
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One of my aspirations for this blog is to get back to my first love in writing - film criticism. It’s been a while, not only in terms of writing but also in terms of watching! Last year, my Masters programme all but swallowed up my leisure time and any spare few minutes were either devoted to my dwindling social life, or to squeezing in the latest episode whatever was the série du jour. Hence, this is my first attempt at cinematic critique in quite some time, and I’m hoping I can successfully steer my mind away from marketing jargon mode for just a few minutes!
Last night I had the great (if unexpectedly cerebrally challenging) pleasure of seeing Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival at my local cinema; this year’s potential smarty-pants sci-fi Oscar candidate, following in the footsteps of last year’s The Martian and 2014’s Interstellar. For the TL;DR version I would sum up Arrival as a 21st century answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey, framed through the current geopolitical lens of unease. It’s a linguistic-centric episode of first contact, one where we find that contrary to the old adage, it is rather words that speak louder, than actions.
Aside from the much larger central issue of an alien race attempting to make contact with earth, the narrative of the film is very much concerned with the personal journey of Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a world-class linguist tasked with communicating with, and translating the alien intruders’ intents for humanity. In the first 5 minutes we learn that Banks has recently lost a teenage daughter to cancer. Though this might only seem like backstory to Banks’ character development, viewers are later encouraged to interpret the narrative in a way that breaks from classical linear tradition, with Villeneuve cleverly using the medium to tie in with the film’s explorative themes of linguistic communication and time.
Those looking for hostile invasions, bombs and explosions will be left wanting, as Arrival certainly is a slow burner. The story takes quite the while to really get going; for instance, it takes Banks & Co. nearly a month just to establish the most basic of communications with their visitors. This is not to say audiences will be bored, far from it. Cinematographer Bradford Young offers up stunning visuals, with sweeping overhead vistas of the wild lands of Montana, where one of 12 fifteen-hundred-foot-tall UFOs stationed around the world has made its base. Elsewhere, we are given glimpses of global panic and unrest that has seized humanity in the face of an uncertain fate- attitudes not unlike those of the the current geopolitical climate. The visuals combined with Jóhann Jóhannsson’s eerie score create and build a hair-raising, anticipatory tension that is sustained through most of the film.
The UFOs themselves are simple and sleek in design, looking like some kind of gargantuan Apple product or an updated version of 2001’s monolith (indeed, *minor spoiler alert* their intentions are very similar to those of the monolith). The aliens on the other hand, though far from unimpressive, I found to be a little underwhelming. When the first ‘heptapod’ (as they are referred to for their 7-pointed radially symmetrical appearance) emerges from a mist to face Banks from behind a wall of glass, one immediately recalls similarly designed extra-terrestrial life forms, such as those from The Mist (2007), Monsters (2010) or Grabbers (2012) – and I suppose it’s unsurprising, evidently there’s something about greyish, slimy looking tentacle-like limbs that gives us all the heebie-jeebies. There’s also something undeniably ‘Thing’ from The Addams Family about them – the way they scuttle around on their weird limbs.
Arrival is an accomplished film by most standards and if you can keep up with the linguistic jargon, as well as keeping your head from spinning during the last ten minutes, you are in for a rewarding cinematic experience (despite any sneaky pro-life messages the filmmakers may have slipped in).
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think in the comments section.
