Arrival
2016  PG-13  SCIENCE FICTION  1h 56min
CAST— Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma
MUSIC— Jóhann Jóhannsson  DIRECTOR— Denis Villeneuve  BASED ON— Story of Your Life (story), by Ted Chiang

     … The end… A truly intriguing psychological science fiction film. Amy Adams stars as a renowned linguist who’s been asked to assist the military when twelve spacecraft appear across the globe. Off she’s whisked to the nearest ship, seated above the Montana plains. She and physicist Jeremy Renner are able to board the ship every eighteen hours, but beginning to communicate with the seven-footed heptopods from scratch takes a bit of time. During the process of communication with Abbott and Costello, as the two heptopods have been dubbed, Adams relives flashes of her daughter Hannah’s life and death. Meanwhile, other governments and world leaders have their own agendas, and the bureaucratic red tape becomes a constant nightmare. Can Adams and Renner convince their superiors, not to mention the rest of the world, not to start an interplanetary war? The tension builds in this one and a heck of a good twist awaits those in the mood for intellectual SF. … the beginning… Oscar-winner for Best Sound Editing.
OUR RATING— ***