I love February. There are always a lot of good movies that run in the Philippines during this month and because of the delay that the Metro Manila Film Festival causes, this ends up being the month that they show the Oscar nominated movies. I’ve been seeing this movie’s trailer for months and had decided early on to watch it mostly because of Jeremy Renner.

Here’s my roundup of Dennis Villeneuve’s (Enemy (2013)) Arrival (2016). I honestly had no idea that he directed this movie; I didn’t think that I’d be seeing his name on big budget productions this soon.

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

When twelve mysterious spacecrafts suddenly land on different countries on earth, the US military enlists language professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams – American Hustle (2013)) and physicist Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)) to study the craft that landed in Minnesota and figure out what the extra terrestrials are doing here. With twelve different nations with vastly different priorities trying to decipher the aliens’ true purpose, it is only a matter of time before one super power cracks and decides to wage war on the creatures.

THE GOOD:

1. It’s incredibly nerdy. It’s always appreciated when films use the whole wibbly wobbly, timey wimey take on the perception of time. I entered the film just expecting it to be about trying to communicate with aliens but the seemingly well-researched science-y stuff was a nice surprise.
2. Amy Adams. While I’m not totally convinced that she was robbed of an Oscar nomination, I do appreciate the fact that the entire movie did rest on her small shoulders.
3. I’m totally on board with it being nominated for Best Movie though, mostly because it’s truly one of the more unique stories that’s been told in a long time.
4. I liked that it played out as a mystery. The story itself was quite simple, if you really think about it, and I could definitely see it being told in a more emotional way (if they focused on the impending grief) but thankfully the director shied away from that obvious take and instead chose to be all-clinical about it.
5. That the romance was extremely subdued, almost non-existent. The two leads did have chemistry though but I am highly appreciative that the two characters were all “work-work-work” until the little bit at the end.

   

THE BAD:

1. The extreme close-ups. I don’t think they were entirely necessary but props to Amy Adams for letting the camera go up that close to her freckles.
2. What were the other scientists doing? Banks and Donnelly were supposed to be leading two teams of capable scientists in this endeavor but it seemed like no one else was helping?

   

3. The director clearly has a thing for several-legged creatures. Kind of creepy, really.

THE UGLY:

1. Plot hole: so Louise manages to convince General Shang to step down by telling him a pivotal piece of information that she only learns through a vision of the future. But the thing is, the General Shang of the future wouldn’t have shown the Louise of the future that pivotal piece of information if the action of past Louise telling him said pivotal piece of information did not happen. It’s confusing but it’s basically the same problem with the pocket watch in Somewhere in Time (1980): the idea of Louise Banks knowing that pivotal piece of information did not come from anywhere. It’s a paradox because her actions in the past were a direct result of occurrences from the future, occurrences that would not have happened had the past not happen the way it did.

   

All in all, Villeneuve’s Arrival was a movie that I enjoyed watching. I’m happy that Villeneuve is being given a chance to be at the helm of such big budget movies because Lord knows the man can tell a compelling story. While not as vague as his earlier work, Arrival is still a pretty absorbing. Performances were pretty solid all around and the science seems to have been solidly researched. It truly is one of the more unique stories I’ve seen in a while and definitely deserves a watch.

THE VERDICT: 8.5/10

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.