Arrival is excellent

Finally. A movie about aliens that even the most austere and astute ethnographer and cultural linguist can enjoy. Arrival has arrived and it’s not about the flashy UFOs or the showy extraterrestrials that you might find in other movies about making first contact. In fact, if you’re looking for any kind of dazzle, you’re best off looking elsewhere. If you’re interested in a story about the importance of communication between any two creatures, this is the one for you.

Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a professor of linguistics and world languages when 12 alien objects descend to Earth, hovering just above the surface. As one might expect, the military conducts the first greetings and it’s in Montana in the middle of an open field where Col. Weber (Forest Whitaker) realizes that he needs more help in learning how to say ‘hello.’ He enlists the help of Banks and theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to participate in proper introductions. It seems that the military just doesn’t understand the guttural growls, thumps and hoots of the otherworldly guests that they call heptapods. They have seven tentacle-like appendages.

As one might expect under such circumstances, people are anxious to learn why the heptapods arrived and what they want. Are they friendly or not? It’s up to Banks and Donnelly but Banks does the bulk of the bridgework. She knows enough to know that she doesn’t know their language but she knows how to know enough of it, if you know what I mean. She can tell you that the Sanskrit word for war doesn’t translate directly to mean a conflict. Whether or not the heptapods can understand the difference between a weapon and a tool remains to be seen, however. The world sidles up to the precipice of chaos and ruin while communication proceeds at a languorous pace.

Like I said, if you came looking for Independence Day-style action with immense crafts emerging through the atmosphere and massive laser battles where Will Smith is ready with a catchphrase, look elsewhere. The heptapods’ craft might be 1,500 feet high but they’re also featureless and incredibly black. The most interesting thing about them is that they’re slightly curved like a contact lens. They don’t even have blinking lights.

The aliens don’t have ray guns or mind control powers. Banks learns early to try writing messages back and forth. They write back by squirting a kind of inky smoke that forms circular word-phrases in a room filled with mist. I found it fascinating but I can appreciate that it’s not exactly Jabba’s Palace.

No, fun seekers ... this is a movie with a brain and a heart. It has atmosphere, and thankfully, it has a story about what it takes to unite a world of different languages, different people, and even different words for the same thing. There’s only one word that I have to describe Arrival and that’s excellent.