Director - Dennis Villeneuve
Cast - Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whittaker, Tzi Ma, Michael Stuhlbarg
Genre - Sci-fi/Thriller
Streamin On - Netflix and Apple TV
" If all I ever gave you was a hammer... everything`s a nail"
Arrival is a 2016 American sci-fi thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer and is based on the 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. The movie revolves around Louise Banks, a linguistics expert, who along with her team, must interpret the language of aliens who've come to earth in a mysterious spaceship.
Whenever you get to know that a movie has aliens in it, your first thought is that the movie has large green ugly aliens or giant robots with laser eyes but Arrival is different. Its an intelligent and highly mature take on the extraterrestrial genre with a multi-layered plot which is likely not what you or anyone was expecting. As soon as the movie starts, you take a dive into Arrival`s non-binary space time theory world, which is hard to exit even after the movie has ended. Amy Adams delivers the most parmaount role of her career with absolute brilliance and Jeremy Renner and Forest Whittaker deliver key performances in supporting roles which adds to the brilliance of this film. A mix of an intellectually stimulating plot, breathtaking acting and extraordinary sound design, Arrival is a bone-chilling thriller which can be easily be compared to the likes of Interstellar! Bringing a sound and well explained approach on linguistic principles based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which in turn is being used to shed light on the puzzling questions regarding the fabric of space and time.
Those expecting a whiz-bang film should be prepared for a more cerebral and emotional experience which makes you meditate on its content days after watching it. Its one of those rare films that received universal critcal praise and is widely regarded as 2016`s best film but never received the type of recognition that it actually deserved! It is a true classic which deserves to be counted as one of the best films ever made!
JRating: 10/10
JRev: An absolute cinematic delight which is truly one of the best sci-fi of this century!
