Jack and I enjoyed this sci-fi story of a linguist called by the military to communicate with aliens in the near future. More than just a mash-up of Independence Day and Contact, it has many layers, skillfully woven. Amy Adams handles the layers beautifully as the lead. Her co-stars, including Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Renner, and Michael Stuhlbarg (last blogged for Big Eyes, Dope. The Immigrant, and Miles Ahead, respectively) are strong as well. Fans of Halt and Catch Fire will recognize one of soldiers, Mark O'Brien, who plays Tom in the AMC series.
Director Denis Villenueve (most recently helmed Sicario) keeps the shells (that's what they call the aliens' spaceships) juggled in the air, working from a script by Eric Heisserer (he's written five other screenplays that I haven't seen) who adapted the 1998 novella Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.
Jóhann Jóhannsson, who scored Sicario and Prisoners with Villeneuve provides music that is occasionally a little heavy handed but very trippy. The whole soundtrack playlist has been removed from YouTube since we saw it nine days ago, but here are a few tracks for your enjoyment: one, two, three.
Marcia said she wanted to see it because it stresses non-violent communication. It definitely does. There's a powerful line that the screenwriter agonized over and then found out that in the final cut, it was in another language with no subtitles. Here it is: In war there are no winners, only widows.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics love this, averaging 93% and its audiences aren't far behind at 82. It's playing pretty much everywhere now.
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