Arrival

Tags

2010's, Amy Adams, Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, Drama, Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Renner, Science Fiction

Film Title

Arrival

Director

Denis Villeneuve

Starring

• Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks
• Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly
• Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber

A sublime science fiction drama with thematic heft and a welcome lack of outrageousness, Arrival stands as an intelligent film that poses many interesting questions for the viewer and grips with airs of mystery and fine performances.

Arrival begins with twelve strange spacecrafts landing at various places around the globe. No one is sure of why these objects have come to Earth and many questions lie on people’s lips regarding intentions of those aboard, particularly as they issue a seemingly indecipherable message. Brilliant linguistics professor Dr. Louise Banks is called up by the American government to aid in discovery of what the beings in the crafts want. Brought along by Colonel Weber and physicist Ian Donnelly, she travels to Montana where one of the ships is levitating. Every eighteen hours, the doorway to these pods open and under the direction of Weber, the team of Louise, Ian and other scientists enters the unknown in hopes of coming across answers. It is here that Louise encounters the alien beings, known as heptapods. At first, the attempts to establish contact with them are futile, but Louise, who is already carrying emotional baggage from the death of her daughter, is not about to give up that easily. Through pain-staking methods and committed diligence to the massive job at hand, Louise slowly but surely begins to form something of a bond with the heptapods and gradually through her patient drive, begins to form an idea of what they could be saying. Yet time is not on her side as foreign powers grow anxious about events and chaos takes hold. Many countries consider taking aggressive action against something they don’t understand and it is up to Banks and Donnelly to crack the language and code before mankind heads towards almost certain destruction by its own hand.

Denis Villeneuve masterfully constructs this mysterious puzzle of a film that probes the mind and moves the heart with excellent degrees of adroitness. The fluidity of his vision and how he chooses to shoot scenes is in full view, particularly in the expansive tracking shots of the spacecrafts and the claustrophobic feeling of the heptapods residing place, which is situated behind a fog enshrouded glass chamber. What is very admirable and most interesting about Arrival at least in my eyes, is the slow burning effect it emits. Villeneuve is clearly not in a rush to tell this story, choosing to slowly reveal things and keep the mystery going for us to unearth. And there are a few well-timed surprises to be discovered in Arrival, which bring out the puzzle box aspects of a jigsaw slowly assembling to create a clear picture. It is also very refreshing that for a movie that contains aliens coming to Earth, this is far from a generic science fiction film with explosive action and ridiculous ideas. As much as the story has global implications as to what the aliens want, it is also the personal story of Louise and the journey she embarks on to understand them. Already having significant personal troubles and sadness in her life, Louise is a character who becomes our entry point to the story and who it is hard not to be emotionally invested with. The timely message of how communication is key to understanding and one shouldn’t rush into the unexpected blindly is heard loud and clear in Arrival. This helps in bringing out yet another layer of exceptional food for thought for the audience to chew over. A subdued lighting scheme causes the movie to have a very mysterious impact as it clearly balances darkness with the occasional flash of light, especially in the case of the heptapods. And talking of those creatures, the effects used to craft them are breathtaking at shaping these strange beings into things of majestic and unusual beauty. Arrival’s soundscape is marvellously constructed, from the sound of the aliens that is difficult to decipher to the melancholy and evocative score of the film, the aural parts of this movie are on a very amazing level.

Front and centre of Arrival and one of its strongest parts is the utterly beautiful and affecting performance from Amy Adams. The dedicated Louise is our entry point to the story and we are put on the same emotional level as her; everything is mainly seen from her point of view and with Adams subtly playing the role to perfection, we feel what she feels. We experience her awe at first seeing the creatures and their way of communication(which resembles symbols formed by an inky substance), we feel her pain of the memories of her deceased daughter and we worry for her as she becomes overworked and determined to uncover the key to everything. It’s a performance of all-encompassing natural emotion that is largely contained and composed, yet always there for us to glimpse. It is quite simply a stunning piece of work from Amy Adams, who is having an excellent year with her other turn in Nocturnal Animals getting notice. Expect a few award notices for her vulnerable and soulful portrayal here. Ably supporting her is Jeremy Renner, who is affable, charismatic and amusingly geeky as the physicist helping Louise with deciphering the message. He works nicely alongside Adams, with the two establishing a good working chemistry of intellect and friendship. The always watchable and sincere Forest Whitaker gives off the definite feeling of authority here as the Colonel in charge of Louise’s mission, although through his eyes you can tell that he is worried about the possibilities of what may happen if contact and motives aren’t established.

Handsomely directed with dexterity by Denis Villeneuve, resonant on both an emotional and intellectual level and acted with soul, Arrival is one science fiction film that gets you to think while at the same time absorbing you with its thought-provoking story and ideas. If you want to see a movie this year that has a brain and a deep heart, make that movie be Arrival as you will be bowled over by what it has to offer.

Junebug

Tags

2000's, Alessandro Nivola, Amy Adams, Benjamin McKenzie, Celia Weston, Drama, Embeth Davidtz, Junebug, Phil Morrison, Scott Wilson

Film

Junebug

Director

Phil Morrison

Starring

• Embeth Davidtz as Madeleine Johnsten
• Alessandro Nivola as George Johnsten
• Amy Adams as Ashley Johnsten
• Benjamin McKenzie as Johnny Johnsten
• Celia Weston as Peg Johnsten
• Scott Wilson as Eugene Johnsten

A perceptive yet slightly offbeat drama on family values, attitudes and mores concerning an outsider coming into the fold, Junebug is a thoroughly delightful and revealing snapshot with superb acting and characters.

Madeleine is a cultured and willowy art dealer in Chicago who in the beginning of the film falls for handsome George Johnsten. After a whirlwind romance, the two are hitched. The main crux of Junebug concerns the two visiting George’s hometown in North Carolina. She decides to combine potentially getting a strange local artist whose work hasn’t gained exposure as someone for her gallery with meeting her in-laws belatedly as it has been six months since she married him. The welcome she receives is somewhat muted from most of the family. George’s mother Peg is an unsmiling matriarch with everything in order, his father Eugene is an eccentric man largely confined to doing woodwork in the basement and his brother Johnny is a sulky and resentful young man, who hardly talks to anyone and is not especially pleased to see his older brother. Madeleine discovers something of an ally in Johnny’s wife Ashley, who is heavily pregnant and seemingly the only person happy to see her. Ashley is a wide-eyes girl who sees Madeleine as something special and is more than a little naive, although she does realise the difficulties in her own marriage with her almost silent husband and hopes that by having a baby things may turn around. Trying to ingratiate herself into the eccentric family while at the same time getting the artist she wants for her gallery, Madeleine is in for a number of surprises as she discovers how different she is from her in-laws and how she might not really know her husband as well as she thinks.

Phil Morrison is excellent in his direction of this film, which is observed with a sense of naturalism, best embodied by the characters that populate the film’s landscape. They are drawn with realistic strokes that make them very human, with all the idiosyncrasies that make up different people. The winning script offers nuanced humour, simplicity and the little dramas of life invested with humanity and unshowy dialogue, which contributes greatly to the overall subtle yet compelling story. Scenes drift into each other with an ease and grace, there is no need for overly arty embellishments here as Junebug dances to its own tune. The pace of the piece is one of measured awareness that is still engaging, though there will be some who find it too slow. I for one liked the leisurely pace that was used in Junebug as it encapsulated how the film was a slice of life drama. Life can be unpredictable at times and things can come out of nowhere; which is exactly what all the elements on show manage to get across. Some parts lapse into labored dullness, but the rest of the film is so acutely observed in its depiction of the strangeness of family ways and chalk and cheese attitudes, that you can excuse the odd misfiring part. The best parts of Junebug arise from Madeleine’s attempts to level with her in-laws and their ways. There is something very honest about the way Junebug examines how sometimes don’t realise that due to a difference in background they come off as a certain way to others not accustomed to that. Environments and upbringing are brought out in quiet yet compelling degrees as Junebug nicely opens up these angles by having the outsider that is Madeleine infiltrates the small town ranks of the family and not really knowing how to converse with them. The music in Junebug is sparse yet used when necessary, ensuring a somewhat eclectic backdrop to the film that often uses contemplative silence in large chunks.

A finely tuned performance from Embeth Davidtz makes her character someone relatable, even when her actions unintentionally lead to her coming off as snooty. The part of Madeleine is one of sophistication and manners which Davidtz marvellously covers, but her biggest achievement is anchoring the part with an underlying vulnerability and inability to see that she comes off as brittle and haughty to her in-laws. In the most ambiguous part is Alessandro Nivola as the returning golden boy. Nivola plays his part in such a way that we discover things about him as the film progresses, much in the same way as Madeleine does. The mystery yet understated delivery ensures that the character becomes interesting rather than superfluous. Amy Adams is the biggest standout of this movie playing the garrulous and saucer-eyed Ashley. Adams encompasses optimism and sunny personality, and in latter stages when the film calls for it, deep and moving sadness. Ashley as a character could have easily become an annoying caricature, but in the skilled hands of Adams, she blossoms into a character that is a lot smarter than many think and someone whose brimming enthusiasm is hard to resist. A truly lovely and expressive performance from Amy Adams enlivens events in Junebug. There is also Benjamin McKenzie, with his monosyllabic but ever so sympathetic delivery of the jealous and angry brother, who can’t quite stomach the success of his returning sibling and is more than a little distant with everyone around him as a result of this feeling of inadequacy. Celia Weston and Scott Wilson fill out the roles of George’s parents( a waspish mother and a quiet dad) with the right amount of small town values and eccentricities as they are perplexed and unsure of their son’s bride who more than stands out among them.

A warm yet bittersweet story of family, culture clash and misunderstanding, Junebug quietly tells its tale with an eccentric and low-key charm and excellent cast, especially a winning Amy Adams.