The film Arrival is interesting in many contexts: a fresh perspective on the topic of alien life, the eternal philosophical question of the meaning of life, and linguistic research. All of this is present here.
However, within the sci-fi setting, my professional interest was drawn to the personal drama of the main heroine. Director Denis Villeneuve explores the theme of psychopathology of depression in an incredibly beautiful and precise metaphor. Depressive states are always about a loss that is not consciously recognized. Louise is depressed at the beginning of the film, though, as it later turns out, she doesn’t realize whom she has lost.
Freud wrote that in cases of melancholia (depression in modern usage), a person does not know what or whom they have lost, and the normal grieving process leading to recovery cannot begin. Recovery starts with the realization of the loss. For the heroine, this realization comes when she finally understands who the girl is in her memories. From there, the process continues with gradually giving new meaning to those memories, understanding the inevitability of loss, and recognizing that even fleeting moments of joy are worth reliving. I particularly appreciate the temporal metaphor, as time flows differently in the unconscious—and in the film.
