In a time and year when our world is at a standstill due to political beliefs and differences among nations, Arrival comes as a breath of fresh air that offers solid entertainment yet it enriches our mind and questions us on how we can unite despite our differences.
This ain't your typical science-fiction/alien invasion film that relies too much on visuals and testosterone to hype us up, the moment the aliens show up, you know that they came here on earth with a purpose. Aside from Montana which is the film's main setting, the alien pods also landed and stationed in 11 different and random locations around the world. Each government had a different approach in dealing with the visitors and Arrival's focus is in the US when linguist Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is recruited by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) to use her skills in communicating with the aliens. Together with physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and a small team, they go inside the pod when it opens for a certain time to talk to the visitors.
Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners & Sicario) had done it again. He successfully made a sci fi film (his first) that's based on the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, that does not rely too much on visual effects and now because of this I'm looking forward to his film the Blade Runner sequel. Anchored by the outstanding performance of Amy Adams who is the films heart and soul, she now joins Jodie Foster in Contact and Sandra Bullock in Gravity in outstanding female performances in the genre and it's an impressive group. Renner and Whitaker offer ample support but it's Adams who clearly dominates. It's one of the best female lead roles in years. Arrival seems like a mashup of Contact and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar but it stands on its own to be called one of 2016's best films.
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