Great food and good movie go hand in hand. It's like a romantic couple coupling their fingers together and walking along the beach as the sun sets down with a pleasant and soothing wind prevailing in the atmosphere. A fantastic combo!
My friend and I experienced such a one and only opportunity to indulge ourselves in an intellectually satisfying film and emotionally satiating victual.
As with the standard template of any Hollywood flick, the Arrival starts with moving the pieces of the puzzles straight away by showing the present Amy Adams being involved with the US government to decode the Aliens' language and her past relationship with her daughter in a back and forth manner like a Tennis rally! The movie pace is relatively and deliberately slow but the screenplay is in such a way that you don't have the feel that it is sluggish as the narration keeps you hooked up by the brilliance of the director. Before you know it, an hour has passed and intermission has arrived!
Just like the Anaconda which was shown to us with a tantalizingly patient and dramatic style, the 7-limbed aliens are also revealed to us in a similar fashion. But, the highlight of the movie is the systematic approach that Amy Adams tries to decode and learn the Aliens language by breaking down every word in the sentence to the point where the Government can know what is the intention for the foreign beings to land in 12 different places.
Post-interval, you have a slight apprehension that 'Arrival' might take the regular route of bang-bang razing of cities with Jeremy Runner and Amy Adams heroically saving the day. However, the ingenuity of the director in the first half negates this possibility that the aliens will not be unfriendly as there is a specific dialogue for Amy Adams where she responds to Forest Whitaker "It's not true" when the Colonel makes a sweeping statement that aliens are dangerous beings without even having interacted with them. It is actually an eye opener and applicable in real life as it is only the deep mistrust, distrust and fear that is set in human beings which is responsible for people to be highly cynical and pessimistic about fellow beings leaving aside the Aliens.
The second half is a dazzling cerebral fodder with statements like 'Time is non-linear' which is completely opposite to the way that we perceive time in reality to be either linear or circular. Likewise, we are always used to flashbacks. In 'Arrival', we learn that the apparent past of Amy Adams is actually her own future. The scene where she interacts with the Chinese in future and the process in which her present unfolds to make that future happen is like a cyclical loop for which the Director deserves a pat on his back. Similarly, the cinematographer is worth a double pat on his back for the way he had choreographed the sequence where Amy Adams is shown against a pristine white backdrop with her golden hair dancing gracefully and gleefully in the background which really makes your jaw drop. It was nothing short of spectacular.
'Arrival' is the kind of cinema that the majority of the people may refrain from seeing as it neither possesses the thrilling dishoom-dishoom effect nor the overblown visual grandiose. This film is for those who really love to watch good movies being made in a thoughtful manner and to those who can understand and appreciate the director's touch.
PS:
I am not sure whether am I the only one who thought during this entire movie that the language of the aliens was akin to the famous patch of ink in the Inkblot test which ascertains an individual's psychology!
X--to be concluded--X
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