Another Earth - Review

A young girl crashes her car head-on into a family of 3 and a half after a drunken night of celebrating being accepted into college. The crash kills both the mother and her son in the car, as well as the unborn child in the woman's body, leaving John (William Mapother), a composer and lecturer at Yale and Rhoda (Brit Marling), the young girl, as the sole survivors of the accident. After four years in a prison, and the uncovering of a planet identical to Earth in that time, Rhoda is released, and finds out who the other survivor of the crash is, with the intention of confessing her crime to him and apologising. When her courage defies her and she struggles to articulate her confession, an unlikely bond forms between the pair.

Another Earth is an extremely strong debut from director Mike Cahill, focusing on the character of Rhoda, and the effects that the one mistake she made as a teenager has permanently on her life, the film deals with extremely dark and thought provoking themes, giving the impression that it was made under the control of an experienced director, not a virgin to the feature film. The discovery and uncovering of the second planet in the film serves beautifully as a metaphor for the journey of self exploration that Rhoda is undergoing, the mirrored actions of the two worlds force characters to accept the fact that they may possibly have to come into contact with.. themselves. The awakening of this idea regarding the type of person the characters would like to see in comparison to, perhaps, the version of themselves in which they currently are is one of the most important aspects of the film and definitely the most transcending, for me. Solidified by (spoiler alert) Rhoda meeting her mirrored self at the end of the film, the last image we see being the two versions of her looking at each other, Cahill definitely chose to highlight the importance of this idea both inside the diegesis and outside.

A story of deceit, regret, love and tragedy, the film is an exciting example of the wonders that are capable from debut directors and a true credit to modern independent cinema. The film has received critical acclaim, winning the Special Jury prize at the 2011 Sundance film festival, and quite rightly so, the film boasts a thematically strong script, and complemented by the raw acting talent of Brit Marling, the film is flies by. I was strongly engaged in the relationship between Rhoda and John, the characters were both so obviously scarred from the incident four years ago, and the tense conversations were so naturally performed that I forgot about the science fiction element going on outside the house and was engulfed in the realism that the relationship was presenting.
Brilliantly tugging all of my emotional strings simultaneously, this film presents the viewer with a journey that doesn't end with the closing credits, beautifully written and beautifully shot, the film shows a lot of potential for the young director and stars involved.