Arrival (12A)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
5/5

EVER since cinema pioneer George Melies first sent man into space in A Trip to the Moon in 1902, onscreen aliens have retaliated by regularly coming to Earth.

Sometimes they’ve done so compassionately, as in the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still or the syrupy Disney-style Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But far more often they’ve arrived with malign intent, typified by Invaders from Mars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Independence Day.

In Arrival, 12 gigantic egg-shaped extraterrestrial spaceships arrive on Earth — “This is world-wide! It is happening right now!” gasps a TV commentator — and humanity totters on the brink of global war. So can an elite team, led by emotionally conflicted linguistic expert Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams), communicate with the alien invaders in a tense race against time and save the world?

That synopsis might make Arrival simply seem to be yet another Hollywood riff on an all-too-familiar theme.

Not so.

Director Denis Villeneuve’s storytelling is intelligent and suspenseful, while screenwriter Eric Heisserer has come up with a cunning reworking of a short story by Ted Chiang.

And, exceptionally, Adams’s powerful, emotionally true and increasingly moving performance as she fights against time to communicate with the aliens and against government superiors all too keen to resort to force, make this a challenging and riveting science-fiction thriller.

The special effects that create the extraordinary giant metal space vessels that defy gravity and hover above the surface of the planet and the surprisingly credible giant spidery octopoid-like aliens are first rate too, but the visual effects never vitiate the narrative.

It’s to Villeneuve’s considerable credit that he tells his increasingly gripping and thought-provoking story — are the alien spaceships vessels deliberately Freudian in their egg-shape to suggest a potential rebirth for mankind, I wondered — to make the most of script and performers rather than resorting to “look-at-me!” directorial tropes.

A must-see.