Another Earth is the story of the aftermath of that
one moment in time that can change everything with an intriguing
science-fiction backdrop. The discovery of another world at the moment two
people’s lives are turned upside down and changed forever.
The speed of the film made it feel like you were
watching someone tell their story or simply bearing witness to their lives
rather than watching a movie. Many would call that 'slow', but I really like
it. It gives the film an elegance and honesty, but also more of a believability
because it doesn't unfold on a formula, the progression is natural rather than
forced.
Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is an ambitious young
student who has just received the opportunity of a lifetime. John Burroughs
(William Mapother) is an accomplished composer with a young family. The
powerful beginning sets up the moment when another earth is discovered and
establishes who these two people were before their worlds literally collided.
Cut to four years later and Rhoda is leaving prison
after her reckless driving resulted in the death of John’s family that fateful
night. Rhoda lives with the guilt of what she has done every day to the point
where she doesn’t feel she deserves a fulfilling life. She moves out of her
bedroom in her childhood home into the attic where her only furnishing is a mattress.
She takes a cleaning job at the local school where she can blend into the walls
and not answer to anybody. The only luxury she allows herself is a laptop which
she uses to research the new earth which was discovered that night.
Meanwhile John has become a virtual recluse whose
life has become a day to day drudgery. He no longer composes, his house is
unkempt, and he doesn’t care about anything the world has to offer. His world
is gone and he has no desire to rebuild it.
One day Rhoda decides to go to John’s house and
apologise for her reckless behaviour and the loss of his family. However once
there she cannot bring herself to admit who she is so offers to clean his house
as part of a free trail instead. Each week she returns and John pays her to
clean his house. As the film progresses and Rhoda slowly gets John’s house back
in order we see the transformation in them as well. Both go from being rather
frumpy and unkempt to taking a degree of pride in their appearance as they come
out of their respective shells and let the other into their world.
The two slowly develop a friendship, and eventually
the beginnings of a romance when John finds out who Rhoda really is. Meanwhile she
has been accepted as one of a select group to travel to the other earth. The
two worlds have developed in direct parallel with each other, their courses
only separating that night the other was discovered. As a final offering Rhoda
gives her place to go to the other earth to John so that he can see his family
again.
The transformations of both their lives and the
irony that the one person who could make him live life again was the one that
shattered it in the first place was brilliantly written and portrayed. The
direction and imagery were amazing and the soundtrack was beautiful. I also
liked the concept of another Earth and the questions it raised: alternate
universes, one moment in time determining an entire direction or chapter in
somebody's life, meeting oneself and what that would be like.
If you are expecting a large science-fiction plot however
you will not find one. This is seamlessly woven into the realities of everyday
life and plays as a compelling backdrop to the beautiful story of redemption.
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