ARRIVAL

(2016) 1hr 56mins
For all its elegant design and calm control of mood, this alien invasion movie makes the Shyamalan sin of assuming that keeping a story from the audience is the same as telling a story. It’s not, and the quivering close-ups become exercises in dragging the plot out rather than explaining its leaps in logic. When characters who are perfectly capable of stringing a sentence together stubbornly stop talking, the sniff of a hustle spoils the slow reveal of the Adams Family aliens’ true purpose.