Another Earth

(2011)
This film I only learned about while watching the trailers on (I think) Win Win; again, kids, sit through the trailers on indie films, youll learn you something. Not every movie I learn about that way turns out to be a gem, or even interesting enough to take a chance on; but the trailer for this film looked intriguing. Young Rhoda (Brit Marling) has everything going for her when one night she crashes into another car while drunk driving. While this derails her life, it completely destroys the life of the man she hit, John Burroughs (William Mapother), killing his wife and two children and sending him into a spiral of depression. Rhoda takes up a job cleaning at a high school; she makes an attempt at going to Johns house and apologizing, but loses her nerve and instead offers him a trial cleaning service. Of course this leads to a tentative friendship, as she is his only source of human contact. A subplot involves the discovery of a mirror earth that is exactly like our own, in every way, in our solar system, and a Richard Branson stand-in who offers a seat on the spaceship he is taking there, a contest which Rhoda enters. The trailer would have you believe the second earth in the film is a big deal, but thats misleading; its just a metaphor for the choices we make in life (although the creation of potential parallel universes is explained within the movie). The entire movie is an extended character piece, largely riffing on the idea that the choices we make in our lives define who we will be and how we will impact others. The movie poses the question if it is at all possible to reinvent your life, using the second earth again, as a metaphor for doing so. Luckily, both Marling and Mapother are very good. Marling sketches Rhodas isolation with great skill, and Mapothers handling of Johns understandably morose look on life, slowly retreating as Rhoda draws him out of his shell, is very sharp. The two of them work perfectly together, their chemistry growing stronger as the film moves along. Theyre both really a joy to watch. Which makes me scratch my head at why we needed the second earth metaphor, because to me it really seems like overkill, or unnecessary. The points about starting over and choosing whom we want to be in life are made quite strongly in the course of the plot, and aside from admittedly beautiful shots with a giant earth in the sky at night (or twilight), I dont feel that subplot added anything to the story at all (well, it did pull me in to get me to see the movie, so maybe thats the gimmick). I would have been just fine with watching the story of Rhoda and John unfold a la Paper Man and didnt really need the metaphor spelled out in such obvious detail. But, mileage may vary. I did enjoy this film, but Im split on whether to recommend it or not because of the high level of (mostly unnecessary) trickery in the trailer. Its a well-told story about isolation and redemption; there was no need to muck it up with a sci-fi maguffin. January 13, 2012