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★★★☆☆
5 November 2016
A movie review of ARRIVAL. |
“I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing,” Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams)
We are continually bombarded with bombastic science-fiction cinema. When something more thoughtful comes along, e.g. ANOTHER EARTH, TIME CRIMES, they automatically stand out. Sci-fi is arguably the most transporting of genres – at its peak it presents new ideas, commenting on our current predicaments, in an exhilarating fashion – when blockbusters manage the feat, the sublime can be attained, e.g. CLOSE ENOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, CONTACT, DISTRICT 9, LOOPER, etc. Like INTERSTELLAR, ARRIVAL commenced with such promise: An atmospheric, thoughtful attention to detail, but then derails into hokey nonsense. What a shame!
We are continually bombarded with bombastic science-fiction cinema. When something more thoughtful comes along, e.g. ANOTHER EARTH, TIME CRIMES, they automatically stand out. Sci-fi is arguably the most transporting of genres – at its peak it presents new ideas, commenting on our current predicaments, in an exhilarating fashion – when blockbusters manage the feat, the sublime can be attained, e.g. CLOSE ENOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, CONTACT, DISTRICT 9, LOOPER, etc. Like INTERSTELLAR, ARRIVAL commenced with such promise: An atmospheric, thoughtful attention to detail, but then derails into hokey nonsense. What a shame!
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There was no need for ARRIVAL to compete with big budget B-movie idiocy like INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE. We do not need another ludicrous, overblown climax. Less is more, especially when the film starts out with less. Minimalism – dialogue, reveals – hook the audience. When extraterrestrials appear at a dozen locations around the globe, we are as entranced as the lead, Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams – no doubt surely now, about her ability to anchor a movie no matter the scale), as well as tense as to their purpose and hopeful as to their benign intentions. Will this be WAR OF THE WORLDS or STAR TREK? Aggression on an almost unfathomable front, or growing the realms of possibility infinitesimally?
First contact is the aim, and the ace premise is quickly established: How do you converse when the other species talks in horn sounds and writes in shapes. Director Denis Villeneuve is a filmmaker who births achingly stylish cinema allied to more meditative stories then the mainstream is currently used to. One thus hoped, as the first half progressed, that he made something low-key yet powerful, like his previous movie, SICARIO. Unfortunately, having an academic as a lead is jettisoned for conventional noisy dumbed-down histrionics.
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We are for the majority of the runtime with team USA dealing with the American parked spaceship. Only linguist Louise Banks and a scientist, theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner – too wooden as usual), are able to begin to crack the communication conundrum. Of all the plethora of brilliant minds, just these two are doing their job. Later, it emerges, so annoyingly, that the rest of the world is pretty foolish bar the protagonists. Is this actually a misanthropic commentary of populations who are currently voicing disturbing right wing sentiments, or just lazy plotting? By the conclusion, one is not ready to give the benefit of the doubt to the arguable social commentary observation.
Yes, there is excellent imagery, and imaginative leaps, but throwing that away makes it all the crueller for the audience member seeking intelligent cinematic life.
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