A beautiful filmic palindrome, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life” is a richly humanistic film, even as its premise is about encountering extraterritorial life. The film opens and closes with a memory, albeit our understanding of the memory and its significance in the narrative is remarkably different by the film’s conclusion. What makes Arrival remarkable is that its very form elicits the same “waking up” within the audience as it does within its characters; we are sutured into the time and memories of the cinematic world, having to relearn and become more aware within the linguistic nature of film itself. What’s more, this philosophical and cerebral film about aliens, language, memory, and time is also deeply affecting, particularly as a parent. Arrival is a timely film, in every sense of the word.
—Joel Mayward
- Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
- Produced by: Dan Levine Shawn Levy David Linde Aaron Ryder
- Written by: Eric Heisserer Ted Chiang
- Music by: Jóhann Jóhannsson
- Cinematography by: Bradford Young
- Editing by: Joe Walker
- Release Date: 2016
- Running Time: 116
- Language: English
Arts & Faith Lists:
2016 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #1
2017 Top 25 Films on Waking Up — #12