Denis Villeneuve's philosophical sci-fi mind-bender has an emotional core that you might not expect from this genre.
Aliens arrive and park their huge egg-like ships at 12 strategic points hovering over the Earth. No one knows what they want nor why they are here. An army colonel (Forest Whitaker) recruits a world-class linguist (Amy Adams) and scientist (Jeremy Renner) to help the US military team understand the visitors’ motives and, ideally, communicate with them. That communication begins and a remarkable interchange is set in motion.
As if this wasn’t exciting enough, world tensions escalate as various nations panic about what’s generally considered to be a hostile invasion. But it transpires that the aliens are bringing something altogether different to humanity...
The film is extremely moving, with an interwoven plot about bereavement. It looks stunning, too. The aliens resemble tree-like creatures, but – unusually for a sci-fi film – the attempt to visualise the unimaginable doesn’t disappoint.
Adams and Renner had already worked together in American Hustle. They make for a good team.
The ending is sad but surprisingly satisfying.
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