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.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COBBLER IN ROMAN POLANSKI'S 'CARNAGE':

While waiting on an arrival of dvds to be shipped from hmv.com (worst delivery time ever, fyi, 9 days & counting..), I figured I would head into my local DVD store and pick out a few films to keep me occupied for the few days I have left at home before heading back to university. While my local DVD store is, to say the least, lacking in anything other than romantic comedies, I was lucky to come across a cheap copy of 'Carnage', a 2011 film by Roman Polanski.

After a brief (just over one hour..) viewing of the movie last night, I could not stop thinking about how effective the film was. Polanski makes an apartment in New York City, the only set of the film (apart from the opening and closing credits), the least claustrophobic place in the world. The film's overall execution is something to be applauded in itself, play-to-screen adaptations can often find themselves lacking in substance, so I have found, and although I wasn't expecting that from this film after reading reviews and hearing from word-of-mouth how good the film is, I was not expecting it to be of the level it is.

It struck me, about halfway through the film, shortly after the projectile vomiting, how the apple and pear cobbler is of much more importance than at first thought. The apple and pear (a classic combination, as said by Penelope) cobbler can be used as a metaphor to describe the whole situation of the film. We first start off with the cobbler being misplaced in the fridge, something which Penelope is unhappy with, showing it is not going to be as good as it could have been if it were out of the fridge. This can represent the meeting between the two couples. The original aim was to solve an issue between their two children, however the bitterness of both of the couples and the constant passive aggression shows that from the outset, the meeting is not going to solve anything and is going to get.. messy (quite literally..). This shows that if the cobbler was not put in the fridge, it would have been much tastier and satisfying, almost like if both of the couples did not have this bitterness and passive aggression, the problem between their children would have been solved.

This short piece of analysis of the.. cake (definitely NOT a pie, right Penelope?) can speak for the whole film, the vomiting being a result of too much anger and that is the only way it can be output effectively, the alcohol representing what the cobbler did, everybody wants a big but some can not handle it, showing their lack of ability to communicate their strong feelings in an effective manner.

The film is amazing, Polanski outdid himself again, and his cameo as a confused apartment owner towards the end of the film was the cherry on a most wonderful cake.