FILM REVIEW: Arrival

Where Close Encounters centred on the appearance of one craft in the Wyoming desert, its 2016 cousin examines the extra stresses and strains imposed on the hurriedly-appointed translator(s) when a dozen spacecraft have pitched up at locations around the globe.

It’s all very well gradually immersing yourself in the newcomers’ language — in this case represented by slightly-varying inkblots squirted onto a transparent screen by the the squid-cum-spider beings — but when China and Russia are getting ever more jumpy about the shell-shaped ships on their own doorstep it takes the calmest of minds to ward off panic.

Thank the heavens then for Amy Adams’ sad but peacable language expert Dr Louise Banks and her physicist sidekick Dr Ian Donnelly.

Thrown together by the military to unravel the mysteries of the seven-legged aliens’ mix of throbs and honks, the pair soon overcome their visitors’ intial frostiness by letting their guards down a little and end up compiling a wealth of the aliens’ circular signs.

But what does it all mean, and when the aliens apparently use the word “weapon”, is this simply a misinterpreted signal or a genuine act of aggression?

The hawkish Chinese and Russians see it as the latter, their own linguists’ observations prompting them to amass their military muscle and start bandying threats around.

In a clear nod to Close Encounters, Banks is given special access to the aliens’ environment as the clock ticks down and faces it with the same mix of enchantment and bafflement we saw in Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary all those years ago.

Indeed, while Jeremy Renner's Donnelly is on-hand with occasional comic relief and as a sounding-board for Banks, it is Amy Adams who dominates the drama, Banks' digression into apparent day-dreams featuring her absent daughter running parallel to her battle for a breakthrough to the arrivals’ mother tongue.

Aside from the obvious leap of faith needed to buy into any alien-based film, Arrival asks its audience to consider the concept of a non-sound-based language and even the idea of non-linear time. 

Sound complicated? It is, but when the weird science threatens to overwhelm the human journey, Adams’ compelling, thoughtful performance forms the perfect bridge between the two.

Forest Whittaker also provides able support as the Weber, the Army colonel struggling to balance the more aggressive instincts of his colleagues - the catalyst for one jarring and (oddly) hurriedly-overlooked subplot — with the desire for a peaceful outcome.

Banks and Donnelly may be captivated by the potential positives of making new intergalatic connections, but Weber's tension perfectly illustrates the flip side.

Paying homage to its highly-lauded predecessor while offering new ways of looking at time, language and emotion, Arrival is thought-provoking and welcome addition to the sci-fi genre.

Like the graceful aliens at its heart, it’s strangely beguiling to look at, intriguing to spend time with and stretches credulity to its limits.

But most importantly, it takes that ages-old concept — “it’s good to talk” — and embues it with new life. 

Its message is clear — with no single leader and no shortage of paranoia, it’s not the aliens from outer space we most crucially need to connect with, but the ones on our own planet.