"Arrival" was one of the most intelligent films to come out during the past years. This was Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of "Story of Your Life", Ted Chiang's recount of a Circe-like linguist who was able to decipher the language of extraterrestrials. The novella revealed how tragedy and female intuition enabled a single woman to leap above suspicion, close-mindedness, and lack of communication. All three were main reasons behind the conflicts that happened since the dawn of civilization. But there was something else. Chiang illustrated how time could be a non-linear concept, such that aliens might have mastered the other ways of time traveling, going back and forth in time, and going around it.
Twelve extraterrestrial spacecrafts, which looked like gigantic, blackened cucumbers, appeared in twelve different parts of the world. One hovered above the verdant Montana countryside, resulting to a highway filled with automobiles and curious (or frantic) passengers. A fog covered the spacecraft surrounded by military vehicles and men in uniform.
"So what would happen now?"
"We arrived."
Louise Banks was struggling to come to terms with the death of her teenage daughter, who was suffering from a rare disease. Her linguistic abilities got the attention of the U.S. Army, who needed a linguist to communicate with the aliens. The Army also hired physicist Ian Donnelly, who was more interested in gaining more knowledge of physics from the aliens. There was awe and excitement on his face, as a small group (that included Banks, Donnelly, and U.S. Army Colonel G T Weber) made their first visit to the spacecraft. There was trepidation all over Banks's face while trying to control her nausea. Two aliens were controlling it, and they were called heptapods (due to their seven limbs). The sound of their voices was akin to a blowing of a horn from the distance, which left the group at a loss. Dr. Banks made a breakthrough after multiple attempts to talk to them. It took them tens of visits before she was able to come up with their limited language. Long hours of analysis (in front of computers) helped Banks figured out that she had a special gift.
Several ghost stories described how solitude could help individuals utilize the full potential of their brain. It must be intentional, but these uncanny tales showed a series of circumstances. Banks confronted her pain while trying to figure out why the heptapods came to Earth. And then the startling revelation.
One of the heptapods told Banks that they would need the help of the Earthlings three millennia from now while Donnelly was shown to be the father of Banks's daughter. Did the linguist foresee how her life would turn out? It was hard to tell, as Chiang showed the possible happenings. It doesn't mean a celluloid version of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, as the author illustrated how time would work in several ways. Perhaps mankind could be able to apply it in a century or two.
Sylvain Bellemare, Claude La Haye, and Bernard Gariépy Strobl did a fantastic job in sound editing and sound mixing respectively, as it helped in creating an atmospheric, if not jittery, setting. Amy Adams, who played Louise Banks, showed vulnerability while on the brink of a great discovery. The movie might not have done the novella a great justice if Dr. Banks showed other emotions. (And more actresses wanted to play an empowering character.) But it was Villeneuve's familiarity with the sci-fi genre that turned the book into a pulsating motion picture. The native of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada would do a remake of "Blade Runner" and "Dune", and no one seemed to object to it.
"Arrival" (or the "Story of Your Life") doesn't offer tips on how to handle a real encounter with extraterrestrials. The most probable reaction from humans would be similar to "The Day the Earth Stood Still", where the aliens wanted to find out if the human species were worth it. Chiang's novella would remind readers of "Planet of the Apes", where Pierre Boulle offered intriguing theories on the evolution of species and the place of mankind in the universe. There would countless probabilities, which could scare anyone. Let's call it a trip into the unknown.
