There are times when what is offered up in the title of film, or even its trailer, is nothing more than an illusionist’s trick on audiences. Such is the case with “Another Earth,” a film that had such a unique initial premise, but then becomes a dull, pedantic attempt at character study. What could have been something amazing devolves into a hapless piece regarding emotion and resolve.
The film begins with 17-year-old Rhoda (Brit Marling), explaining her situation in a voiceover to a small montage of herself at a party: She has her whole life ahead of her as she is about begin her college career at MIT. We soon see her driving home (somewhat intoxicated) when the DJ on the radio reveals the discovery of another planet that is almost identical to Earth appearing in the sky.
While she becomes fixated with the blue speck in the night sky, she crosses over and plows into a stopped car, carrying a man, his son and pregnant wife. Her lack of attention kills the wife and son, sends the man into a coma and nets her four years in prison.
Picking up the day of her release, the once vibrant Rhoda is nothing more than a shell of her former self, allowing the guilt of the incident to concede her future and take work as a high school custodian. However, with a now much more prominent Earth II shown in the sky, a millionaire is hosting a contest for a trip to the planet by submitting a short essay, which Rhoda enters, citing that the early explorers of the world were not noblemen, but vagrants and felons.
As she attempts to ease her mind, she seeks out the man who lost his family in the crash: John Burroughs (William Mapother), a Yale music professor-turned-hermit. In her attempt to confess to him, she becomes weak and states she is from a cleaning service offering a free first cleaning. Rhoda becomes John’s maid, not being able to bring herself to reveal the truth, and begins a relationship with him, attempting to not only bring closure to her demons, but also free John of his.
The reason why there is very little about the titular planet in the previous synopsis is because that’s the way the film plays out, with most of the scenes involving Rhoda and John’s trivial relationship and not the science fiction aspect that we are led to believe is the pivotal plot device of the film. As a short, with a runtime of about 25 to 30 minutes, this version of the story could have worked; however, the Earth II plot line is so diluted, it is essentially erased from memory until a character wanders outside and sees it placed in the skyline.
Which is a shame, really, because there was so much potential with the idea (how it won the Alfred P. Sloan Award at Sundance is beyond thought), but it seemed director Mike Cahill, who also served as writer, producer, cinematographer and editor, was more keen to the character development of the two leads, thus creating a psychological study on grief and dealing with loss instead of using that as a device to explore the newly discovered terrestrial anomaly. When the Earth II storyline is allowed to peek out, it offers insight and philosophy as to how we would react to not just alien life forms, but a mirror image of our race -- something that could have been great, given the chance to expand. The whole thing just feels backwards.
Cahill really takes to account the fact that this is an indie film, taking the cinematography page right out of Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married,” but with a splash of Paul Greengrass’s “Bourne” trilogy, as camera moves involve needless zooms and lack tripod support. What is left to the screen are trace memories of undergrad film students attempting something for their local festivals, not the likes of Sundance, and not allowing the camera to be as central a performer as those who are captured by its lens.
As a whole, the film just seems to full of itself and what it attempts to say that it loses and hope that it had, and what we are given something that feels lost and confused.
DIRECTOR: Mike Cahill SCREENWRITERS: Brit Marling, Mike Cahill PRODUCERS: Tyler Brodie, Paul S. Mezey, Phaedon S. Papadopoulos CAST: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Meggan Lennon RUNTIME: 92 minutes MPAA RATING: PG-13
