Don’t let the sci-fi trappings fool you: Arrival is not a fast-paced effects thriller. It is, indeed, a must see. “It took me out of myself”, she told Sky News.
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There are very few movies nowadays that I deem worthy of the hype.
The movie stands or falls on what happens next. Arrival is not that movie. “I would encourage her to kind of find a great community to get involved with”, the actress said, according to The Spec.
So what is it about?
Adams explained that the message of “Arrival”, related to how her expert linguist character Louise Banks tries to communicate with aliens who land on earth, feels even more apposite in today’s world. Eric Heisserer, the film’s screenwriter, told Inverse that he developed visual representations of the alien language and, with designer Patrice Vermette and the rest of the team, ended up creating a dictionary of 100 completely original alien words.
Ink painter Martine Bertrand designed the written language shown in the film.
Only hours later, inside the pod, Louise and Ian interact-on the other side of a large window-with a pair of aliens, enormous, seven-legged, squid-like creatures that communicate in dark, circular “squirts”.
A movie about a woman’s experiences with an alien race presents an immediate challenge in that you can’t easily research that scenario. Also, a little bit of human self-sabotage in the second act would probably come off somewhat clumsily Contact-esque (remember the whole Jake Busey subplot?) were it not for the fact that, well, humans probably would pull some dumb shit like that if a super-intelligent alien species ever showed up at our door.
“Arrival”, like “Interstellar”, “The Martian” and “Gravity” before it, is a well-crafted and smart film using a huge canvas extending into the cosmos to explore and discover what brings out the best in humans. Among the many tropes of alien-invasion stories that get a clever tweaking in Arrival is the one that presumes that an alien invasion would unite humanity: that might not be happening here, or if it is, it may not be for the reasons we expect. Needless to say, that they take things into their own hands and almost costs them the entire mission, which would have meant destruction for the entire planet.
Whatever the aliens in Arrival are has to be seen. Small spoiler alert here, Arrival does not do that. If we do not watch this with a mixture of fear and awe, all is lost.
Adams said that taking on acting roles is all about the character.
As doomsday gets closer, Banks’ personal story comes more into focus, as does her understanding of how the aliens’ radically different perception of such things as time might hold clues as to why they are here. Would the “Enchanted” actress discourage her daughter?
Louise is scooped up by the military leader of the operation Colonel Weber, played by Forrest Whitaker, and flown to rural Montana where one of the ships towers over a serene valley floor. Reiner is endearing as well and makes for an effective co-star. “I want for her so bad”. You don’t want to miss anything.
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The film virtually goes off the rails at this point as tanks and guns pointed from by-the-book soldiers threaten to undo the good will. As long as you are up for the ride, you won’t be disappointed. “Doing dinner theater helped me overcome my stage fright and to breathe properly in order to give performances”.
