Another Earth

In writer and director Mike Cahill’s beautifully shot debut film, Another Earth, a film about the discovery of a duplicate planet Earth in the solar system is, despite its name, not the driving narrative for the story.

Rather, the discovery serves as more of a medium that allows the drama of the film to unfold; and as a result, the narrative creates a bold, moving philosophical quandary about the nature of humanity.

The story begins with Rhoda (Brit Marling, who also co-wrote the film), a young, smart, ambitious high school grad, recently accepted into M.I.T., who is driving home from a party intoxicated. She sees a planet in the horizon, and in trying to get a better glimpse of it, she crashes her car and kills a mother and daughter driving by. Consequently, Rhoda is sent to prison for four years for involuntary manslaughter.

Having essentially forfeited her entire bright future, Rhoda moves back home with her parents and takes on a job as a janitor at a local high school, and transitions into her new life with melancholic and defeated acceptance.

Plagued by guilt for killing two people, Rhoda tracks down the lone survivor of the accident, John Burroughs (Lost’s William Mapother), a former music professor and conductor to apologize for the accident.

Flustered and scared, when Rhoda finally visits his house, she can’t muster up the courage to tell him who she is and pretends to be a maid from a cleaning service, and as a result, ends up cleaning John’s house on a weekly basis.

Meanwhile, the "second Earth" seen at the beginning of the film looms closer to our orbit and ostensibly carries duplicate versions of ourselves. Aimless, frustrated, and depressed, Rhoda enters an essay contest to win a spot in a flight to the other “Earth”.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Another Earth is that the film veers far from the hard science fiction film suggested from the trailers. While supplying some of the film’s most striking and gorgeous visuals, the presence of a duplicate Earth is merely a small subplot within the full narrative structure of the film. However, once you move past the false promise of a sci-fi driven plot, the film develops into one of the most intimate and self-effacing dramas of the year.

With striking cinematography, a uniquely organic and appealing soundtrack (by the insufferably hipster-esque titled band Fall on Your Sword), and a keen directorial style from Cahill, it’s no question that writer and director Cahill is someone to look out for in the years to come.

Both Marling and Mapother turn in rich, moving performances that aptly showcase the range of their talent. And while the story wasn’t what I had hoped it to be, the fact of the matter is that Another Earth is still a very affective hard-boiled character-driven drama with a thin sci-fi veil to wrap up its narrative conflicts.