Movie Summary of Another Earth by Michael The Moviegoer.

 

ANOTHER EARTH = ****

“Guilt Trip”

“Another Earth” signals the arrival of a strong new voice in American filmmaking. Director Mike Cahill has delivered a thought-provoking deeply human drama laced with elements of science fiction.

While it’s easy to point to any number of films that deal with the loss of a child and/or spouse (last year’s “Rabbit Hole” being one example), no other similar plot is set during a time when a second Earth appears in our sky. At first, this awkwardness feels contrived. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear what this film is trying to achieve. And I think it ultimately succeeds in becoming something really special.

The plot involves a bright young woman named Rhoda, expertly played in a star-making performance by newcomer Brit Marling, who also co-wrote this film. After having a bit too much to drink, Rhoda is driving home from a party when she first hears about the appearance of this second Earth on the radio. So she pokes her head out of the car window and looks up at the stars. This leads to a tragic head-on collision with John Burroughs (played by William Mapother) that leaves him in a coma and kills his wife and young son.

Four years later, Rhoda is released from prison. She is consumed with guilt over what she’s done and feels compelled to try and make amends. She tracks down Burroughs who is now living like some sort of recluse. Claiming to be from a cleaning agency, she offers him her services as a maid. At the same time, a corporation is holding an essay contest for anyone interested in winning a trip to this new Earth in the sky. Rhoda enters the contest and becomes one of the winners selected to go.

Scientists have a theory that Earth 2, as it’s called, may actually be from a parallel universe, and it might be a mirror of our own world where we are all living out our same lives as though it’s just another showing of the same movie, but on a different screen. If this is true, there’s always the possibility that Burroughs’ family are still alive on Earth 2. If Rhoda can get there, perhaps she can alter the outcome.

The movie doesn’t play as complicated as it sounds. It’s deeply emotional on a level that makes it easy to suspend disbelief with regard to the fantasy element. I was fascinated right from the start all the way to the startling finish.

When the movie ends, viewers are left with many questions for which there are no answers, but in a cool way. We don’t feel cheated by the lack of answers. Instead, we leave the theatre feeling inspired by the questions. How many films can succeed in making that happen?

DVD Double Feature:

All of us, at some point, wish there was a stop-and-rewind button on our lives. We’ve done or said things we wished we could take back or do over. Mistakes and regrets haunt us our entire lives. “Another Earth” is an elaborate sci-fi guilt trip that requires the belief in the existence of a second Earth as a chance to right a tragic wrong. In the 2008 drama “Seven Pounds”, Will Smith also takes some rather elaborate steps to try and make things right after he causes a deadly car accident. It’s one of Smith’s strongest dramatic performances.

Michael The Moviegoer