Arrival

You certainly can't accuse Amy Adams of being lazy; two movies are gracing the cinemas at the moment featuring her considerable talents and the most-hyped of which is Denis Villeneuve's Arrival.

You'll have seen the trailer or one of the many, many posters by now and you'll know that 12 unusual 'shells' (they look like humongous contact lenses made of charcoal) have conveniently placed themselves at 12 nondescript locations around the globe and it's up to the countries they've landed in to establish just what they want with us Earth-folk.

Adams is Louise Banks; a linguistics expert brought in to decipher the 'alien's' whale-like speech and awesome Rorschach-like writing.

It seems odd to say but the first hour plays out like a 'realistic', what-would-happen-in-this-scenario feature. Every country selfishly keeps any and every piece of intel to themselves and no one can agree on what to do (talk to them or attack them?) We discover that the aliens (hidden away, squid-like beings covered in elephant hide) are up for having a chat and content to let the humans in to these shells every 18 hours. We gradually learn more and more about their speech and, potentially, their motives and you're left glued to the edge of your seat as the tension builds.

All along we're driven through the plot by the brilliance of Adams. She's our eyes and ears and we see everything as she does (the camera always dwells on her face before turning to show us the shells or aliens.) Her expertise is brilliantly condensed into bite-size chunks for the other characters and, therefore, us as the audience to understand and it all makes a great deal of sense how she approaches the situation.

Throughout she's plagued by visions (any detail of which will ruin the movie) and, at first, this adds intrigue to the character. All of a sudden, though, as the movie seems about to reveal itself, it throws a random twist our way and the whole picture collapses in on itself.

It thinks it's clever (and for all of ten seconds you'll agree) but, on inspection afterwards, it doesn't add up and we're left frustratingly wanting more. Suffice to say I won't spoil anything here but it's a colossal disappointment.

However, it's terrifically acted and scripted, and terrifically stylish as well. An adult, realistic sci-fi not unlike Christopher Nolan's Interstellar both in tone and scientific content.

If the ending was better, we'd have a classic on our hands, as it is, I'm a little disappointed by it. Don't let the hype and rave reviews affect your viewing experience and let me know your own thoughts.

4 stars ****