ARRIVAL
ARRIVAL
#1ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/11/16 at 4:22pm
After everything that's happened this week, I went to the movies to escape for a few hours. I saw ARRIVAL and was in no way prepared to be as effected by it as I was. This isn't just a standard sci-fi film. It's a film that makes you (if you let it) question basically everything that you know and understand about...well, everything. I don't want to give anything away about it because the process of watching and ultimately understanding it is just as beautiful as the questions it poses.
Updated On: 11/11/16 at 04:22 PM
#5ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/13/16 at 4:25pm
Loved it. It feels a little like what I felt after seeing Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA at Lincoln Center for the first time back in, when was it, '95? Now I want to go back and watch the film all over again to piece it all together.
Lovely work. I'm flummoxed that it only got a B CinemaScore--
Jordan, about those dreams you've been having, can you share with us where on the time continuum your dreams took place?
#7ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/13/16 at 9:02pm
It's one of the most beautiful films of the year and by far my favorite sci-fi movie ever (though I'' not a fan of the genre so that's not saying much). Everything about it works. Amy Adams will make you laugh, she will break your heart, she will thrill you. It's a stunning exercise in understatement. The friendship and respect between Adams and Jeremy Renner is deeply felt throughout the entire film. I don't want to say much about the twist because the movie is so much more than the twist and I agree with Jordan that everyone should experience the movie on their own. I'll just say it's a twist that only confirms the greatness of the vision that everyone was able to achieve. I also can't stop thinking about it since I saw it on Friday, a truly masterful film.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
aeb4546
Swing Joined: 9/12/16
#9ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/14/16 at 11:32am
SPOILER
One thing I don't understand: Wasn't the gift given to HUMANITY and not just Amy Adams' character? Obviously she was the first one, but I thought, based on the flash-forwards, that she taught it to others. If that was the case, wouldn't her husband also know the fate of their daughter? I don't understand why they would separate because she told him if he already knew himself.
#12ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/14/16 at 1:34pm
SPOILER
While the gift was for humanity, I understood that it was still a challenging "gift" to fully understand. Adam's character may have tried teaching it to others, and yet they may not have been capable of fully understanding. As for Adam's husband, I assumed he rejected what was to come, even if he knew she was correct.
The interpretation of this film seems a bit ambiguous which makes it all the more interesting.
#13ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/14/16 at 5:50pm
Wait-- wha-what?
I loved this movie as I watched it, but how did I miss the scene where she's given said gift?
SPOILERS AHEAD: I thought she just had a natural ability to see the future as past dreams. Where/ when did the aliens give her such a gift? Was that the information she gleaned from that jumble of alien words she read in that final scene in the quonset hut?
Happily my enjoyment of the movie was in no way lessened by not understanding this key detail as I was watching. So-- um...yay!
#17ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/16/16 at 8:49pm
Louise is the first of the humans to begin to experience time as the heptapods do because she's the first to truly begin to understand their language. We clearly see she goes on to teach it to others, but Ian probably just didn't ever learn it.
Someone in a Tree, for more clarity, we hear Louise talk about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which is the idea that the language someone speaks actually changes the way their mind works. The heptapod's language is nonlinear, and they experience the world in a nonlinear fashion that is entirely different from how humans experience it.
It's certainly a double-edged sword of a gift. Louise clearly felt the experience of loving her daughter so deeply that she chose not to alter her path. When she asks Ian if he would change his future if he knew it all, he said that he wouldn't, and that he would instead know to savor the best moments of his life. I think this is probably how Louise came to appreciate the gift: she was able to use it to savor her life rather than fear the future in some way. (I think that's probably also why she eventually told Ian: he said he'd savor it, too!!)
The really interesting thing (for me) to think about is how the heptapods have never known anything differently. It's how their language developed, and they've likely been experiencing time this way for millennia as a race. They probably have just as much trouble thinking of how not to experience time this way.
I don't think that I would want it for myself -- the worst part would be seeing a future I couldn't change. But I can see how Louise found some value in it. I think it's especially important to consider what we see of her at the beginning of the movie: she seems to have little meaning in her life. We think it's from the loss of her child, but this was her life before her experience. She shows up at work even when there are aliens outside. She tells her mom "Oh, you know me, I'm always fine" when her mom calls in a panic about it. There's a darkness and gloom over her life. I'm not saying she was cured by loving her daughter, but I do think that perhaps something fundamentally changed in how she looked at her life.
#19ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/22/16 at 7:51am
It really was a wonderful, thought provoking film. Ms Adams is really turning into a major force in acting, this along with her stunning turn in Nocturnal Animals proves how brilliant she is .
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#20ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/22/16 at 7:54am
Saw this movie and LOVED it! With respect to Someone IN a Tree2's question: "I loved this movie as I watched it, but how did I miss the scene where she's given said gift?" I believe it was the moment Louise put her hand on the barrier and the heptapod did the same.
This movie requires additional viewings, perhaps even studying. Can't recommend it highly enough,
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
BroadwayConcierge
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/24/15
#21ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/22/16 at 3:29pm
Finally got to catch Arrival last night, and y'all weren't kidding. I can't think of another movie I've found myself actively, critically, seriously thinking about on my entire way home from the theatre. A really inspired and deeply thought-provoking piece of work.
Rumpelstiltskin
Broadway Star Joined: 4/22/07
#23ARRIVAL
Posted: 11/27/16 at 8:23am
It's really hard to talk about this movie without focusing on the ending and how everything leads up to it, so please, if you haven't seen it yet, stay away from this thread. You need to experience the movie as it plays out on the screen. You won't be disappointed.
*** Major spoiler ahead. ***
I've been perseverating on the point where Louise tells Ian that she just figured out why her husband left her. Later we piece together the significance of the comment, especially as it relates to who the husband is. My question is pretty basic. After the movie ends, at the point in a relationship where couples talk about past relationships, wouldn't Ian have asked about the "just figured out why my husband left me" comment when she says that she had never been married?
#25ARRIVAL
Posted: 12/17/16 at 6:53pm
ErikJ972 said: "I want to know why they need our help in 3000 years!
"
I want to know this as well. I wonder if they are planning sequels.
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Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
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