Movie Review: Arrival

It's incredibly ironic that a film like Arrival opened three days after the United States presidential election. At a time where America is in a state of social turmoil and deep division among its people, it was cathartic to see a film that focuses on just how important it is to understand groups of people you're unfamiliar with (or in the case of this film, species) before you jump to conclusions about their intentions and the content of their character. Entertainment has a special way of healing wounds and seeing a film with such a compassionate message definitely helped improve my mental state after a brutally depressing week.

Timeliness aside, Arrival manages to be a satisfying moviegoing experience because of how unique it is from other alien invasion films. Instead of opting to go the intergalactic warfare route like Independence Day, Transformers and countless other films have over the past two decades, Arrival tells an intimate, personal story about human emotions and relationships that just happens to have aliens in it. The lack of alien vs. human battles gives Arrival a distinct, minimalist feel and allows it to have an emotional core that you don't typically find in the sci-fi genre. I'm not going to pretend like I don't love massive, action-packed sci-fi blockbuster spectacles, but it was really cool to see a film take a more subdued approach to the classic human vs. alien storyline.

I will caution viewers that Arrival is a slow-burn film that requires some patience to sit through. The first hour or so has some pacing issues and will leave the audience confused as to what the hell is going on at times. However, once a plot twist reveals the answer to the central mystery of why the aliens landed on Earth, the full scope of the film's narrative materializes and it leads to a richly rewarding final act that will leave a lot of viewers emotionally-shaken.

Arrival is exactly the type of inventive, deep and powerful film you hope to see at the end of every calendar year. There's no doubt in my mind that it will pick up a slew of Academy Award nominations (and possibly a long-overdue win for its terrific star Amy Adams) and promptly become a cult sci-fi classic. There's still a barrage of intriguing titles set for release over the next two months, but Arrival is currently one of my favorite films of the year and a hell of way to inject some life into the cinematic landscape after a disappointing start to Hollywood's fall slate.

4/5 Stars