The Movie of the Year Has Arrived
Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve puts a new spin on movies about extraterrestrial life. In many movies in the past such as Independence Day and Edge of Tomorrow, we see a focus on violence and war with these creatures. With this, Villeneuve uses that emotion of hatred towards these creatures, called Heptapods in this film, and plays with it throughout the movie. Throughout the entire movie, Villeneuve makes you feel like you’re the one building a relationship with these creatures so by the end you go from scared of what these things are going to do to feeling a sense of love and care for them.
Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor, runs the show alongside Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist, both recruited by the US military to try and communicate with these Heptapods. Much like her role in Trouble with the Curve, Adams takes her job very seriously and is very passionate about her work. This is shown at many points throughout the movie where Adams character takes many risks and sacrifices for the sake of the job at hand.
Villeneuve keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat by providing a constant mysterious urgency where we never know what to expect next from these Heptapods. To go along with this the films Cinematographer, Bradford Young, does a great job of setting the scene with perfect lighting throughout the movie to set that eerie and mysterious mood that draws us in at every moment during the movie. Young’s work has been showcased in other movies such as Selma and A Most Violent Year, which both have been nominated and awarded many awards for their cinematography. With these notable works of art Young has built a strong resume and now is working on one of the next A Star Wars Story films.
Along with being a great film, Arrival teaches us a lot about the world and the culture in which we live in. This film provides somewhat of an eye opener on how disconnected we are as a global society on a personal level, not via social media. With these Heptapods landing in various spots throughout the world, nations are forced to communicate with one another and try and decide what actions to take. You’ll see at various points across the movie there are many failed attempts at this, however at the end you will find there is still a glimmer of hope for our global society.
