Alien tongue

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This article was published 10/11/2016 (3620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Strictly speaking, the film Arrival is very much a work in the science-fiction genre. Directed by Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Incendies), it’s about linguist Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, facing a challenge of meeting a contingent of extraterrestrials and attempting to translate their message.

With the governments of the world coming to believe the aliens constitute a global threat, the fate of the world hangs on Louise’s mission.

In a culture that tends to equate science fiction with escapist entertainment — the most recent Star Trek movie being a prime example — Arrival is a challenging piece of work, starting with its heroine, whom we meet as she suffers the blow of losing her only daughter to disease.

Adams, 42, is a five-time Oscar nominee, who admits “I was at a point where I wasn’t really reading scripts,” when she picked up this adaptation of Ted Chiang’s short story Story of Your Life.

“I read the script and I fell in love with the character, and when I got to the end of it, I had to go back and read it again,” she says, referring to a revelation in the film that forces a re-evaluation of everything preceding it.

“But it was the emotional core of this that drew me to it,” Adams says. “Any time you get a character that is as well developed and emotionally vulnerable and yet intellectual, with a strength of character, that’s a real gift to an actress.

“It’s a gift because it’s a reflection of what women are to me,” she says. “They’re not one thing — they’re not purely intellectual, they’re not purely vulnerable — they’re fleshed-out human beings and to see that reflected so beautifully was a pleasure.”

A movie about a woman’s experiences with an alien race presents an immediate challenge in that you can’t easily research that scenario.

“This is all new, so it was matter of just going along and being open to the experience,” Adams says, admitting that ultimately, she had to take on the character’s pain.

“It was all about just finding the right stomach ache to get through the day,” she says.

As for the more palpable challenge of researching the specific mindset of a linguist, Adams says: “I had these grand ideas that I was going to understand everything about it, until I realized it’s actually very scientific and mathematical and anthropological and sociological.

“There’s a reason people get doctorates and it takes a long time, because it’s very complicated,” she says.

“But I was grateful to learn that linguists aren’t necessarily proficient in many languages. Some of them are focused on one particular language and become a master of the history of that language, so that freed me up to feel like I didn’t have to convince you all that I could speak everything fluently.”

In fact, being a mother of a six-year-old daughter proved unexpectedly valuable in her understanding of the work.

“Choosing the wrong words is one of the most beautiful things you can watch a child do, because you can tell their intent is there and you know what they mean even if they’re not using the right word,” she says.

“So what this film has helped me remember is that intent is just as important as content,” she says. “Sometimes in today’s media, intent gets lost in the content. That’s why it’s so important to have face-to-face communication, and that’s what this film reminds me: You have to look at somebody to communicate effectively with them.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing