Arrival is a science fiction drama starring Amy Adams as the linguist Louise Banks who, after alien ships land on Earth at 12 different location, is handed the task of understanding their purpose on Earth.The director, Denis Villeneuve was amazing with his story telling which was slow but never boring. In fact, the slow pace was needed to develop the characters and showcases Amy's brilliant and subtle acting. This is not a movie where you will see explosions and air battles and so I would recommend people to not go into the theater with those expectations. Denis does a good job setting up tension from the first act with support from his cinematographer Bradford Young and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. I was really engrossed into the movie with the music in the background that supported a scene beautifully. Some of the camera work and lighting and parts of the story reminded me of Interstellar and Inception and thats a good thing.
The character development was unconventional in terms of timeline and that might catch people off-guard so attention is needed from the start to appreciate the story as a whole. Even if this is more of a personal drama, the world impact of such a visit is not ignored and you see how that affects everyone.
The one thing I did not like was a mysteries that were not resolved for example what was said between the Chinese military leader and Louise that resolved all the conflicts amongst the nations. Forrest Whitaker's accent was also difficult for me to understand and the movie does not do a good job with the side characters. Jeremy Renner's relationship with Amy Adams was not fleshed out and perhaps the story telling style made it harder to do that.
Overall, an excellent movie to watch. Rating: 8.5/10