A film that touches deep....it touches the heart, and then..... it touches the mind much more.
Still hoping to watch again.
By genre it is Sci-Fi and Aliens, but it's very different perspective. It's really more about time, freewill, meaning, language, compassion,....and really not so much about speed, or space ships or space travel.
It's a couple weeks since I've seen it, and it's so thought provoking that I was actually hoping to catch it one more time before writing about it (sadly didn't)
The concepts are subtle and layered, and it looked like Denis Villeneave intended it to be such. It challenges thinking, forces questions.
There is the sudden appearance of twelve gigantic spaceships at different locations around the world. Louise Banks, (Amy Adams) a linguistics professor is chosen to lead a team of investigators to find a way to communicate with the beings within, find out why they're here.
There's a strong focus on linguistics, using the real world theory of linguistic relativity, which states that the language we speak effects the way we think. Here Louise's effort to communicate with the extra terrestrials, enables her understanding of time without an order, and thus her experiences are not just flashback of memories but a cognitive experience in the future as well. Her future self influences occurrences in the present, in parallel time, so actually terms 'past' and 'future' take on a whole different connotation.
As the story unfolds, Louise realizes that having her daughter, knowing she was going to suffer cancer and die young was still a choice, a choice her husband chose not to take. He leaves..and she has the baby. This can be looked at as having the choice to change occurrences, or living the occurrences with the choice of 'how' to live it, based on the knowing.
The movie also nicely brings out how little the public is told about what's actually happening, how leaders across the globe attempt to work together, and how country head insecurities tether nations on the verge of war. War not just against the Aliens, but also among the nations. Is the driving force insecurity or compassion.
While the cinematography is breathtaking, the sensitivity with which the communication between Amy and the heptapods (as they are called) is handled is as breathtaking.
I'd say it's above all else a philosophical film, asking some deep questions on free will, personal responsibility and non linearity of time.
While the cinematography is breathtaking, the sensitivity with which the communication between Amy and the heptapods (as they are called) is handled is as breathtaking.
I'd say it's above all else a philosophical film, asking some deep questions on free will, personal responsibility and non linearity of time.
Still hoping to watch again.
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