Review | Film review: Arrival – Amy Adams reaches out to aliens in clever sci-fi drama
Director Denis Villeneuve follows up acclaimed thriller Sicario with an emotional and intellectual look at how we’d handle visitors from space
3.5/5 stars
Denis Villeneuve, who directed the superlative thriller Sicario , delivers another clever drama with the science-fiction movie Arrival. Based on a short story by Asian-American writer Ted Chiang, it’s an unusually delicate tale about how to cope with an alien arrival on Earth. Although much of the science has been stripped out of the narrative – what’s left is a basic mélange of linguistics and theoretical physics – it still manages to combine emotion and intellect.
When 12 alien spaceships land in different countries, linguist Louise (Amy Adams) is asked by the US military to work out a way of communicating with them. The aliens seem friendly, but what’s the purpose of their visit?
Aided by theoretical physicist Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Louise makes progress slowly, helped by some strange dreams. Will she be able to find a common language before one of the uneasy coalition of frightened world governments falters and tries to blow up the alien spacecraft?
Arrival opens on January 12
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