Arrival - the story of humankind
22.20.00
People often confuse when they’re trying
to classify movies into specific genre. Does the genre define the theme of the
movie, does it define the style of the director’s filming style, is it caused
by the characteristic of how the film was shot?. For me personally, a movie is
too complex just to be labeled with one category. When a movie only exhibits a
few strong points, for example when we talk about science fiction which
generally accommodate many decorative words of science (physics, chemistry,
linguistic, etc), has a twisted end and has small parts of drama to draw
sympathy from its audience then the movie would only leave people discussing
about things that would be forgotten in a few days.
But Arrival was different. It
meticulously established sets of significant movie aspect with minimum
unpretentious shots. Probably that’s why, after i watched the movie, I felt
lightheaded and my body automatically delayed my sleep when it was the only
thing i should do after feeling nauseous. I kept thinking about how time
actually one of many things that scares us. If not, then there won’t be
numerous films which raised topic about time, time travel, how to predict the
future, how to expand a life time, etc. Even a Dracula’s movie are talking
about surviving through time to time, and don’t get me started on the concept
of nonlinear time which was brought in Arrival.
How Louise watched her daughter, Hannah
surrendered to her illness disturbed me. How come she didn’t use her ability to
see the future to prevent it?, or make a better living environment for
humankind, or preserve peace on earth and so on?. Is it because with great
power comes great responsibility?. It’s Louise’s curse to take a peek of what’s
going to happen next in her life without the luxury to take precautions. Why
aliens who taught Louise their skills decided to seek help from retarded
creatures 3000 years earlier?. If Ian Donnelly the physicist was meant to be
Louise’s husband then would she regret meeting him and decided to search for
others?. There are still so many questions popped into my head even when i
wrote this review.
Arrival tried to picture the vulnerable
side of people as personal or as a collective. Many everyday (seems petty) issues
were depicted in the movie without exaggeration. It’s interesting to see how
Louise was the only human who was prepared acquiring the capacity to see the
forthcoming. Is it because she was so eager to pursue the truth, experience a
lifetime event and “make friends” with aliens?. I believe we tend to judge and
make lousy decisions with poor data nowadays. Separation is easier than unity,
why?. The concept about aliens whose writings interpret all of their thinking
but misunderstood by the Chinese government also reminds me of how people
struggle with communication and the impact of bad communication skills which
isn’t included in people’s concern, makes me worried.
This film although exhausted me with ideas
and sense of solitude (which were captured by the dreamy sceneries and number
of interaction between Hannah and Louise), but i won’t refuse to watch it twice
and put it in my must-watch list.
“What if you could see your whole life
from start to finish, would you change things?”
“I definitely would!”
Footnote:
Image by daily-movies
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