OPENING NIGHT Memory is a strange thing—it doesn't work like I thought it did." In award-winning director Denis Villeneuve’s (
Sicario) riveting and deeply thoughtful drama, five-time Oscar® nominee Amy Adams is Dr. Louise Banks, a brilliant linguistics professor recruited by US military intelligence for a top-secret mission: to investigate the sudden simultaneous appearance of extraterrestrial spacecraft over several global sites, and to establish communication to determine whether the aliens have come in peace, or with intent to harm. In this deeply humane tale, supported by strong performances from Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker, the common tropes of science fiction are secondary to Villeneuve’s focus on the subtleties of language and the complex continuum in which human memory and emotion coexist. With gentle nods to Robert Wise’s 1951 classic
The Day the Earth Stood Still,
Arrival arrives none too soon with its message of universal peace, understanding, and the power of everlasting hope.
Guest: Amy Adams