Arrival (English)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Cinema is beautiful for how it allows us to safely experience the dangerous lives of many. Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival shows exactly how an average person will likely react to an UFO in the neighbourhood, how they will feel when approaching an alien.
As Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams in a sensationally understated and effective portrayal of a linguist) stands dwarfed by the towering egg-shaped UFO, as she sweats and turns breathless at the prospect of stepping into this unknown vehicle to encounter unfamiliar beings, the music lowers into a deep, pulsating rumble.
The closest we will likely come to touching an alien spacecraft in our lives is when Dr. Banks hesitantly places her trembling fingers on the underbelly of the vehicle. Those moments are alone worth the admission price.
Villeneuve’s film, based on a short story by American sci-fi writer, Ted Chiang, is about the complexities of language.
It also, as a side-note, portrays how the world would typically react to such an invasion. Countries wouldn’t immediately unite in a saccharine display of solidarity.
Some would want to lead, some would want to follow. Some would want to attack, some others would want to wait.
As Banks says, “Learning a new language rewires your brain.”
In fact, I’d have loved to learn the deep intricacies of how Banks eventually makes sense of the alien language, how she manages to make them understand hers. It’d perhaps have been too dry for many… for those who, no doubt, will read that the film is about an alien invasion, and expect to see explosive aerial battle sequences. The explosions here are of the mental variety.
If you really wanted to nit-pick, I guess you could say that Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker don’t particularly have too much to do.
As the film ended, I couldn’t but laugh at the cheekiness and the irony of the opening line that in hindsight, gives away the end: I thought the story began here, but this was the end. Go figure.
Sudhir Srinivasan
