【Crazy Sex】

TORONTO -- Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s alien invasion movie Arrivalbegs the question -- if you could Crazy Sexsee your whole life laid out in front of you, would you change anything?

Would you excise painful memories, or carry on despite knowing a difficult path ahead? It's a complex burden to carry, but five-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams makes it look effortless with her strong star turn in this well-constructed puzzle of a movie.

Adams plays Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist brought in to make first contact with aliens. Known as heptapods (due to their seven feet), the aliens have touched down in 12 countries around the world, with unknown intentions. If they want to make peaceful first contact, why send 12 ships and not just one? However vague their motivations may be, there are no acts of aggression, though their mere presence is cause for concern, prompting the U.S. president to waste no time in declaring a state of emergency.

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The spaceships themselves are referred to as “shells” in the film. The football-shaped monoliths emit no waste, gas or radiation. There’s no gravity onboard, but there is a glass wall that separates the visiting humans from the aliens, who are bathed in a misty white light. But don't mistake them for the bad guys.

SEE ALSO: Amy Adams ain't afraid of no aliens in 'Arrival' full trailer

If there’s any antagonist in Arrival, it’s China, which is wary of sharing information with other governments and all too ready to demonstrate a show of force. Whatever China does, at least four more nations can safely be expected to follow its lead. That's why Adams' linguist is so important.

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She approaches language like a mathematician, with the knowledge that the language you speak determines how you think. Louise also has a history of translating for the army, so she already has top secret clearance when she's recruited by Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) and paired with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to answer the big question hovering in the air — “What is your purpose on Earth?”

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Before they can even board the shell parked in Montana to ask, Louise and Ian must learn whether the aliens even know what a "question" is, and that could mean spending months teaching them rudimentary English so they’ll have the tool of shared language. Louise quickly learns that there is no correlation between what the aliens say and what they write, as the heptapods’ circular symbols convey no sound. Time is nonlinear for them, which explains the heptapods' nonlinear orthography, which is to say that their language can be read backwards or forwards -- i.e. the same as a palindrome or, in this case, the name of Louise’s late daughter, Hannah.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong netizens rage over Hollywood film 'Arrival' poster blunder

Described as the foundation of civilization, the glue that holds people together -- and the first weapon drawn in any conflict -- language is a fascinating element to build an alien invasion movie around. Like the heptapods’ written language in the film, the story of Arrivalis circular.

The film opens with Louise’s voiceover, explaining that “memory is a strange thing, bound by the order of time.” That one line proves they key to the whole movie, which is put together like an engrossing puzzle. Looking at each piece individually, it’s hard to tell where Arrivalis leading, but the end of the film reveals a larger picture that brings clarity to everything that has come before it. Yes, it’s one of those movies, but the layered screenplay by Eric Heisserer, who adapted Ted Chiang’s short story, is the film’s saving grace.

The message at the heart of the film is the importance of global unification. The people of Earth would be much stronger if we stood together as one, rather than allow borders to define and separate us. The film works hard to elicit an emotional response, employing the use of Max Richter’s haunting track "On the Nature of Daylight," and though I didn’t cry, I was moved all the same.

Arrivalmay not be in the same league as Villeneuve’s Sicario or Prisoners, but it’s a thoughtful, original and ultimately satisfying sci-fi movie bolstered by a strong lead performance from Adams, who may very well have punched another ticket to the Oscars.