Arrival 

When I read Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others, I was deeply impressed by the imaginative and intelligent writing, and recommended the book, a collection of several stories, many times. I always regarded it as a bit of a cult hit, so I never expected to see one of the stories (“Story of your Life”, which gave the book its title) turned into a movie.

The adaptation by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) adds many artistic layers to Chiang’s straightforward story. We share in the confusion of the protagonist Louise Banks (portrayed brilliantly by Amy Adams) who finds herself thrust into a military-led effort to understand the intentions of aliens whose giant pod-like ships have descended in multiple locations across the planet.

The aliens are large, looming octopus-like creatures who communicate in ways entirely unlike our own. The struggle to communicate turns into a race against time and against old prejudices.

Hollwood’s favorite sidekick, Jeremy Renner, plays scientist Ian Donnelly alongside Amy Adams, but he’s mostly there so she doesn’t have to talk to herself. There are similarities between Louise Banks and Ellie Arroway, Jodie Foster’s character in Contact, but unlike that movie, Arrival avoids any “religion vs. science” detours and stays focused on the larger story. Interestingly, we don’t see many political leaders – we experience events strictly from the point of view of the main character.

As with his previous films, Villeneuve paces things masterfully. There are scenes where we slowly move in real-time towards the alien ship, mirroring the anticipation and anxiety of the protagonist. Later, we skip through what could be weeks or months, until the film returns to real-time as it works up to a furiously paced conclusion.

This is not a cheerful movie, but it’s also not a dark one – like Contact, it is an intimate story full of empathy and love, and like the best of Star Trek, it has a strong moral center. If you enjoy intelligent sci-fi, you will not want to miss this one.

Once you’ve watched the film, you may want to read Stephen Wolfram’s post about the alien language, the spacecraft, and other details he and his son Christopher advised the filmmakers on. Note the attention to detail: source code shown in the movie does real stuff!