arrivalSicario director Denis Villeneuve enters the sci-fi genre with an impressive, intelligent tale of alien first contact that requires total concentration and in return offers some mind-blowing ideas.

When leaving the screening of Arrival I gave two big sighs of relief. Firstly, that they still make intelligent sci-fi movies in this age of cookie-cutter fantasy/superhero movies, and secondly that on the evidence of what we see here, Blade Runner 2049 (the director’s next project) is in safe hands. Admittedly, the French-Canadian director never had anything to prove – his Prisoners and Sicario are both excellent variations on popular movie genres – it was more a case of discovering what he’d pull out of the bag for his sci-fi debut.

On the face of it, Villeneuve wasn’t making this easy for himself, the plot of aliens arriving on Earth, leaving our human protagonists to work out their real intent is as old as the hills. A dozen gleaming shiny wedges appear from nowhere, strategically hovering in different regions across the world (including Devon, England!). First contact is made and an audio recording is taken to Amy Adams’ character, an academic who has previously helped the military with difficult translations. And wouldn’t you know it, she’s carrying more emotional baggage than a season of Jerry Springer contestants. But before you roll your eyes, stick with it and just let the story develop. What might initially feel like an unnecessary dump of backstory to hamper the abilities of our female lead is actually something a lot more clever.

As I’ve already alluded to, the plot is an old one, and one immediately recalls The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Twilight Zone‘s How to Serve Man. it taps in to the paranoia that surely no intelligent life capable of rocking up in giant ships would want be benevolent (look what happened in V and Independence Day) and yet it’s to writers Eric Heisserer and Ted Chiang’s credit that this doesn’t feel tired and predictable. As observers, we genuinely don’t know why the visitors are here, and at no point do we get to see anything that humans don’t; there’s no back room plotting by the evil overlords as their plans come together. Instead of providing a text/cookery book or Klaatu Barada Nikto to translate, the Heptapod visitors squirt inky coffee-mug rings into the air – how can we possibly crack that code? What we can rely on is humanity messing things up, the belligerence of super powers and the unwillingness to play nice nicely with one another. Is it a parable on modern times, a reflection of where society is currently at? Looking back on the events of 2016, it probably doesn’t feel as far-fetched as I’d like it to be.

Amy Adams is great as Dr Banks, ably supported by Jeremy Renner’s scientist. When they talk tech there’s none of the ‘let me explain this to you in simple terms’ dialogue that hampered Interstellar. We, as an audience, are invited to – indeed, expected to – keep up with what’s going on, and this may be the one area where things fall down. At the end of the movie I reflected on what I’d seen, played back certain scenes, added a few things up, and yes I got it. But judging by the reactions from a number of audience members, this was not a universal reaction. Among murmurs of ‘What the hell was that about?’ and ‘I didn’t get it’ I have the suspicion that some word of mouth will be negative. Whether or not a second viewing will remedy this issue I can’t say, but the fact that Hollywood is still prepared to spend a big budgets on such grand, cerebral ideas is very reassuring.

As you’d expect, production values are top notch and not showy; the spaceship effects are excellent and the alien encounters sit just on the right side of believable. Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson delivers another superb score, serving both as an otherworldly soundscape to the visitors and matching the underlying combined sense of dread and wonder through voice samples and ominous rumbles. (You can read my interview with him about the score here http://nickjoyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/do-composers-dream-of-electric.html)

More akin to 2001 and Contact than Battle Los Angeles or District 9, this alien visitation (note I didn’t say invasion) movie will appeal to those who just want to think a bit bigger about the possibilities that the universe offers. This isn’t a thriller and there’s very little physical action; it’s a mystery, a precision-engineered puzzle box daring to be opened. But is it a Pandora’s box, a Lemarchand’s Lament Configuration, or something that we actually want or need? I have not intention of telling you, as Villeneuve et al have already done a great job in answering that.

Verdict: My sci-fi film of the year, bar none. 10/10

Nick Joy

Leave a comment