I don't really know where to begin on this movie so I'll start at the beginning, when the movie opens to a musical score of strings, and the tone of this musical score carried a weird kind of emotional weight that made me think of life, and I thought how few movies dare to open heavily with "life", and how great it would be to have a movie open at the start of life, with birth. Much to my surprise, we then see Amy Adams' character nourish her newborn child. In this weird moment at the opening of the movie, the imagery on screen had perfectly aligned with my feelings towards the music used, so in that moment I realized that Villeneuve might truly be on another level. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...
Arrival is a cerebral sci-fi movie. I say cerebral (although the snob in me desperately wants to say "intellectual") because it approaches its sci-fi themes very maturely and poetically. For a huge part of the movie the sole purpose of the movie really seems to bring more understanding to the viewer to the power (but also complexities) of language, how it affects culture, how easily it can be misinterpreted and how important, at all times, it is to communicate. It is not an action movie. It does create scenes of suspense but mostly for the purpose to bring extra attention to the importance of communication, of understanding. I saw the movie at KINO Rotterdam, the greatest new theater in the world (they were one of only six theaters in the country that picked up The Wailing, this weekend they play the digitally restored version of Once Upon A Time In The West, on Sunday they have a special breakfast buffet followed by a screening of Breakfast At Tiffany's and they continuously do arthouse highlights so in a week they'll be screening Refn's Bronson, which didn't even make theaters here upon its initial release!), and this seems like pointless information, but afterwards I headed over to the mainstream movie theater in the city to finally catch Don't Breathe, and I overheard one plebian Hodor tell another plebian Hodor that he'd seen an advance screening and thought it was pure two hour bullshyt of a bunch of people trying to learn a language.
And I suspect to many people, that will be the takeaway, because they refuse to sit there and try to understand what the movie is telling you. This isn't a movie about alien warfare, it's not even about warfare period, it's a movie about facing something you don't understand, and choosing to learn to understand so you can coexist properly. But where the movie shines is that in its execution, it never falters. Villeneuve is one of Hollywood's finest craftsmen and every detail and nuance is incredibly well thought out. The aliens are shrouded in mystery, but Villeneuve presents their mysterious presence as something majestic, channeling quite a bit of his own movie Enemy. The performances incredible, with Adams at her best in ages and Renner reminding us once again how easy it is to forget how excellent he can be.
The movie evolves its own themes and concepts exponentially in the final act, in ways I won't spoil or even hint at, but outside of one annoyingly expository scene (a sole blemish on the movie), Villeneuve's grasp is otherwise unfukkwithable. Calling this a prelude to Blade Runner 2049 would be disservice to the strengths of this film, but watching this I couldn't help but think that if this is what Villeneuve can do with a "restrained" sci-fi movie, we're in for one hell of an otherwordly experience with Blade Runner.
was feeling the trailer.
