I just watched the 60 Minutes episode featuring this documentary, and I was awestruck by the wisdom on display by Pope Francis as well as beauty of the very thoughtful way in which he offered his thoughts and opinions. I was raised Catholic but renounced any connection to them over ten years ago after slowly realizing that my own personal values bore almost no resemblance to their stated positions on topics ranging from marriage to objective morality to gender equality. I expected to be reminded of all those things and more when they started showing excerpts from it, and instead was delighted to hear not one thing I objected to.
I'm not so naïve as to think that the entire organization has made an about face and is pointed in the right direction, but it appears that the man in charge of it very well might be. If he were the priest at my local church, I don't know that I'd start attending again, but I'd definitely be sneaking in after the reading of the Gospel from time to time just to hear him speak. There was a goodness that radiated from his face and a light in his eyes that was impossible to ignore, and I can't wait to watch this documentary in its entirety.
I don't believe I've ever been so captivated by such a deeply flawed movie as I am with Arrival. What others have written about it—with far more insight than I could—is all too true, namely that the acting is hollow at best and the plot is nothing so much as a severely frayed thread in danger of completely unraveling. It's an utter waste of one of the most creative iterations of extra-terrestrial contact in cinematic history. And yet, despite all of these reasons to dismiss this lamentable execution of the cinematic arts, I can't help but admit…I love it.
When you strip away all of the trappings and examine this movie solely for the essential story being told, you are privy to something very profound, and genuinely uplifting: how humanity's manifold foibles, when put together, might just be redeeming after all. Through the protagonist, Louise, we see the unfolding of a series of personal tragedies and yet her response to them is tempered with unflinching dedication to the accomplishment of something worthwhile, and therein she finds her purpose. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I found in this story elements of the best of Disney's heroes, Shakespeare's tragic rulers, and religious texts' unwavering commitment to the belief that there is no such thing as a meaningless sacrifice. While they all could've been done greater justice, I believe their coexistence here is cause to sit up, take note, and eschew any demands for a greater polish and fidelity to realism.
I came away with a greater knowledge of myself and a more forgiving opinion of our species as a whole, and for both of those I am grateful beyond measure. Perhaps in time I'll come to see that the imperfections in its presentation actually work to clarify some or all of these laudable aspects of the narrative,...or perhaps the magic will fade under the weight of familiarity and I'll be unable to defend it again as I have here now. Either way, the two hours I devoted to watching this movie for the first time are ones that I won't ever regret, and perhaps that's the best praise any artistic work can receive, especially in light of this particular story.
