3 out of 5 stars
Rated PG-13. Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker
Opens Fri., Nov. 11
Much of the advance marketing for the highly anticipated Arrival tended to characterize it two ways:
1. It's a challenging, cerebral film about "big ideas," and
2. It's an alien-invasion flick without the battle.
Strictly speaking, one of these is true.
Amy Adams plays Dr. Louise Banks, a linguistics professor who has done some ethically questionable — at least to her — translation work for the military in the past. The film opens with a time-hopping montage of her losing her only daughter to illness, then dives right into the present as 12 alien spacecraft descend upon seemingly random points (Montana?!) around the globe while she's on her way to teach a class. Naturally, the military — in the form of Forest Whitaker — approaches the sympathetically self-contained Banks to help communicate with whatever might be inside the craft; after some back-and-forth, she's on a helicopter to Montana (?!) with Whitaker and Jeremy Renner's boyishly excited physicist, Ian Donnelly.
Once on-site, the two academics are tasked with entering the ship, meeting its occupants and figuring out what they want. They're up against not only the usual "maybe we should just blow 'em to shit" military attitude and Web Age global tension, but also what might be the creeping cumulative effects of proximity to the visitors. As the stakes escalate and she immerses herself in deciphering the aliens' written language, Banks begins to wonder if she's losing her grip on reality, and is ultimately faced with making decisions that could save or destroy two worlds — her own, and the planet at large.
Some might call this mash-up of personal drama and sci-fi innovative, but Arrival is lessened by the inclusion of too many tired elements of both genres, from the military's itchy trigger fingers and paranoid CIA operative on one side to moody, lingering soft-focus shots and unnecessary voiceovers on the other. Take away the (admittedly original and visually impressive) aliens, geopolitical backdrop, and fantastical ideas about the true nature of the universe — including a twist that feels as much like a cheat as a revelation — and this could be an ambitious effort to raise the bar for movies patterned on Nicholas Sparks adaptations.
Except for one thing: Adams herself.
Whitaker and Renner both elevate two-dimensional roles, but both are underused. The entire thing rests on Adams's shoulders, and she turns in a frankly stunning performance. Her portrayal of a woman struggling not to crack under the unimaginable strain of the position in which she finds herself is far more interesting than the story itself; watching the fissures appear in her carefully crafted facade as she juggles fear, awe, exhaustion and indecision is mesmerizing.
Adams's Banks is truly worthy of a movie about "big ideas." Unfortunately, there really aren't any here. Ultimately, Arrival is about love and hard choices. And while those ideas can and have formed the core of great films, this isn't one. Without Adams, it likely wouldn't even be an OK one.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2016.