Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Time travel
PLOT DISTORTED BY TIME
Amy Adams plays Louise in “Arrival,”
the movie I saw tonight. Alien airships appear at 12 locations on earth causing
chaos the world over. The movie veers further into scientific fantasy with a
plot in which Time deviates from a linear progression. If we’re given a story
in which Time is not linear, the question becomes, “then what is it?” Is it swerving? Intermittent? In this movie, there’s no telling what progression Time takes.
If, according to “Arrival,”
Time is not linear, the concept of yesterday, today, and tomorrow changes,
though Louise is transported to scenes in her life that can be identified as
taking place in the “past” (with respect to what is presented as “present”).
This rattling around in time has no rhyme or reason, except as it satisfies the
needs of the movie’s plot.
There are calculated
revelations which save Louise’s life and the world from war. These revelations
are timed at moments that are strategic to the plot but are obscure with
respect to their origin in Time. Louise discovers a universal language at a
critical moment, but why at that particular time? In like manner, she is acquainted with a Chinese diplomat, a relationship she uses to
save the world from war. This information is interjected at a timely moment in
the movie, but where in the sequence of Time did this become a fact? More
fundamentally, if Time is not linear in “Arrival,” what does Louise know at any
given moment in the movie?
If Time deviates from
linear, what will happen to plot elements such as cause and effect? How will we
develop motivation? The spaceship in “Arrival” isn’t as hard to believe as the
movie’s portrayal of Time.
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