Our lives are determined by the passage of time and because of our restricted language, we have limitations in understanding it. The film Arrival, directed by Dennis Villeneuve, addresses this issue in a riveting way. As the movie begins we see the main character, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), raising a child as a single mother, a child who grows up and dies in her early teens. Then Louise is shown, supposedly after her daughter has died, now a professor of linguistics. She discovers that twelve alien ships have landed in various spots across the Earth and is recruited by the army to interpret their language and their purpose on Earth before the world breaks out into global war. 

Arrival is an alien movie, but it is unlike any you’ve ever seen. Rather than pitting humans against aliens, the movie seeks to create a much deeper message by showing the extraterrestrial creatures trying to help humans who are on the verge of war by providing them with a gift. Though the plot moves slowly at points and gets a bit technical as Louise tries to decipher the alien language, as we watch her and her partner, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) traverse on their journey throughout the movie, we become enveloped in their story and their struggles become ours. The movie maintains an intense and engaging mood while also allowing its viewers to become very emotionally involved as they ponder the questions the movie poses about how our concepts of time and language affect us daily.

One of the main reasons this movie is so psychologically captivating is because of the poignant and beautiful way the actors portray their characters. The heroine of the film is Amy Adams, who does not fail to evoke powerful feelings in viewers. Her delivery of dialogue is keen, her mix of sadness and happiness demonstrated perfectly when she states, “I forgot how good it felt to be held by you.” When the camera focuses on her face, the viewer is always able to completely understand and interpret her sentiment, especially when she thinks about the death of her daughter. Not only is Amy Adams crucial to the success of the movie’s plot and tone, but the other actors, including Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker, are also extremely talented and very important to the development of the motion picture. Although sometimes the acting becomes cheesy and it seems like the cast isn’t really trying their best to entertain and make you think, you always fall in love with them again within the next five minutes.

Not only is the acting deeply affecting, but the score also develops the plot in very important ways. As Louise arrives on the scene of the alien spaceship, the camera sweeps the Montana landscape and eerie music plays, setting the tone for the rest of the movie. As the film progresses, some of the most moving moments are either completely silent in the background or have soft music playing, enhancing the emotion in the dialogue. For example, when Jeremy Renner’s character, Ian Donnelly says to  Louise, “I’ve had my head tilted up to the stars for as long as I can remember, you know what surprised me the most, it wasn’t meeting them it was meeting them, it was meeting you,” the music in the background is soft and legato which makes the scene romantic and moving. The set design is amazing as well, complementing the stirring mood of the score perfectly. The spaceships that deliver the extraterrestrial beings to Earth look completely real because they are threatening but beautiful. The aliens, though their form is surprising when we first see them, quickly become believable.

As the movie comes to a surprising end, no matter if you are the most hard-hearted person to walk the Earth, you will be crying tears of both joy and sorrow. The final revelations are powerful in their own right, but the elegance with which Amy Adams portrays them only adds to the beautiful message about the strength we must uphold even in the face of tragedy. As the end credits roll, you will sit there in silence, wondering, “If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”