Arrival is the year’s most thought-provoking film and is a deeply poetic story about love and the sacrifices that people make to feel love. Amy Adams play expert linguist, Dr. Louise Banks, who is called in by US Colonel Weber, played by Forest Whitaker, to help the government communicate with aliens who have arrived in 12 ships that are randomly scattered throughout the globe. Intermittently woven throughout the story are flashbacks to earlier parts of Banks’ life and these serve a vital point to show why she is doing what she is doing and also play a pivotal part in the film’s climax. The aliens in the movie are beautifully designed and their motivations for being  on Earth serve as the driving point of the entire film. Director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) visually took inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey in the beautiful long, sweeping takes of the environment, which are beautiful realized by cinematographer Bradford Young, and the hazmat suits the characters wear while also showing elements of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that are present throughout the story elements of the film.

Amy Adams is absolutely terrific in this film. She perfectly shows her character’s ingenuity and brilliance in every scene without coming off as a know-it-all. The best part of Adams’ performance is the restraint she displays and this serves to show why her character is so receptive and accepting of the aliens. Her chemistry with Jeremy Renner’s scientist character is also outstanding and this film is a career-best performance from both Adams and Renner. This movie perfects each character development, whether it’s with a conversational scene or focusing on them and displaying the character’s emotions without giving them a long speech that feels completely unnecessary.

The film is a modern day sci-fi parable about how the world needs to start working together in order to solve problems and also how today’s society is extremely reactionary and always turns the violence as a first resort. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer perfectly gets this message across and while at times, it is a little heavy-handed, the film earns these moments. The end of this film is the ultimate love-it or hate-it moment and as a viewer, you will either buy it or end it. It is extremely hard to get into the emotional power of the last 15 minutes of the film without getting into spoilers but it is extremely powerful and moving. Arrival immediately jumps into the upper-echelon of legendary sci-fi films because of its thought provoking nature and is one of the best films of the year that will hopefully get tons of awards recognition.

Arrival: 9.75 out of 10