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It is hard to put into words what makes "Arrival" such a beautiful, moving story.
It's hard, in part, because discussing it too much will give away the surprises that spring up in director Denis Villeneuve's mind-expanding alien thriller. But it's also because there's so much in "Arrival" tied to language, its promise and its limitations, and how finding the right words is the key to intelligent beings being able to connect.
Language is everything to Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist and academic who has poured herself into her work. It wasn't always so, as a prologue shows Louise with her daughter, Hannah, from birth through her teen years, when the girl succumbs to a terminal illness.
"There are days that define your story that are beyond your life — like the day they arrived," Louise says in the movie's narration. "They" are a dozen alien vessels, resembling giant coffee beans standing on end, positioning themselves at 12 locations around the globe. Army Col. G.T. Weber (Forest Whitaker) calls Louise in to listen to the aliens' sounds and see if she can translate them into understandable words.
The Army transports Louise to Montana, the only American site with an alien visitation. Also on the trip is Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a theoretical physicist. The linguist and the scientist go into an opening in the alien vessel and start to exchange words and symbols with the tentacled aliens.
As Louise starts making connections with the aliens' language, images and memories start to seep into her thoughts, sometimes blurring past, present and future. As she and Ian try to unlock the puzzle, outside pressures — a shifty CIA operative (Michael Stuhlbarg), a nervous Army captain (Mark O'Brien), a trigger-happy Chinese general (Tzi Ma) — threaten to force their hand.
Villeneuve ("Sicario," "Prisoners") and screenwriter Eric Heisserer ("Lights Out"), adapting a short story by Ted Chiang, have constructed a puzzle that both Louise and the audience must unravel — one whose answer is informed as much by the heart as by the brain. The way that puzzle unfolds is tricky and touching, and open to some level of interpretation.
Villeneuve employs a mostly desaturated palette, with green Montana fields, olive-drab military camouflage and the occasional blip of red and blue on a computer screen cutting through the gray tones. The color scheme, tied with the electronic-heavy score by Jóhann Jóhannsson ("The Theory of Everything"), heightens a tension that gets under the audience's skin.
Adams gives a gutsy, heartfelt performance. Behind the fragility of her hazel-green eyes, she exudes a fierce intelligence as she figures out the aliens' secret and a tragic yearning as she tries to make sense of it. She gives "Arrival" the humanity that turns an interesting piece of science fiction into something that's grand beyond words.
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'Arrival'
Alien vessels come to Earth, delivering a mystery that a linguist (Amy Adams) must unravel, in this luminous story.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Friday, Nov. 11.
Rating • PG-13 for brief strong language.
Running time • 116 minutes.