"Arrival" by Denis Villeneuve (2016)

And now something completely different.

Although I am absolutely in love with old black and white movies, from time to time curiosity brings me to something made recently and this movie is apparently huge international hit right now so why not using the freedom of vacation to check it out. The whole subject of the first contact between humans and aliens has been huge inspiration since forever - present in cinema at least since 1950s to my knowledge (but curiously not much exploited before) - and strangely enough we never have enough of this kind of movies because the idea is always fresh and intriguing. Aliens are often portrayed as friendly but every now and than somebody comes along who shows them in less positive light, basically directors usually divide between good aliens and monsters. Since I absolutely believe we are not the only intelligent life around, my guess is that contact with another race will probably be dangerous for us, since history shows that every time two civilisations met, usually one destroyed another, either trough germs, microbes, weapons or complete cultural assimilation. As much as we want to find the answers and contacts, we are probably best left alone and forgotten (ignored?) in our little corner of universe, before somebody eats all of us, together with our wars, religions, churches and superstitions.

The most interesting thing about this movie is the way it curiously plays with bigger picture (destiny of the planet a a whole) while simultaneously toying with one single human life (in this case linguist and phonetics expert Louise Banks) and how it all affects her. Amy Adams is excellent as woman caught in historic moment and we perfectly understand her anguish, the way she bravely tries to keep herself in control while the rest of the world slowly disintegrates into hysteria. Armies, politicians, governments and countless people around the world react with fear and can't decide what is the right step (some even suggest aggression) but Banks must stay focused on her given task and somehow translate communication with aliens, which is maddeningly vague - this intelligent movie is probably the first one to explain how difficult it might be to communicate with someone who might have completely different way of thinking that we, humans, have. How to ask "Where do you come from?" or "What do you want?"  if aliens have different concept of place and time? As linguist, Banks have clear idea that things are not so simple as simple question-and-answer sessions (though we suspect that aliens would destroy us long time ago if they intended to do so) and maddening flashback from her life eventually all make sense towards the conclusion of the movie. Surprisingly effective, intelligent and thoughtful movie that cleverly ignores every expected action cliché and focuses more on suspense and psychological drama.