Another Earth

{4/5} “What would we really like to see if we could stand outside ourselves and look at us?”

Another Earth, released in 2011

It’s wonderful to come across a movie like this. I knew only the basic premise before I watched it — it was a pleasant surprise to find it’s so good. It’s a low budget movie with science fictional ideas and a focus on the characters.

We discover another planet, seemingly exactly like Earth, that has come into our solar system. Unfortunately the discovery is made when Rhoda is in her car — she hears about it on the radio — and when she looks for the planet out her window she runs into another car. Two of the three passengers in the other car are killed, so Rhoda is sent to jail.

The other planet is dubbed Earth 2, and four years later they’re getting ready to send an expedition to visit it. Rhoda is also getting out of jail. The movie is about Rhoda and John, the one person in the other car who survived the car crash. A small warning: the ending of the movie is a tad abrupt.

Brit Marling is a revelation, both as an actor (she plays Rhoda) and a writer (she co-wrote the screenplay along with the director). I recognized William Mapother (who plays John) from somewhere (he’s had small parts in a few things). The movie was directed by Mike Cahill, and it was his second — he previously directed Boxers and Ballerinas, a documentary on the US-Cuba conflict.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Reviews of movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply