Another Earth

Another Earth could be categorized as a beautifully twisted movie. This is not a happy movie and deals with very serious subject matter. It also challenges the viewer to think of what they would do if they were in the same situation as the characters in the movie. The movie succeeds in every area that you could imagine. Beautiful cinematography, original story, emotional acting, and believable situations. Brit Marling also shows herself to be one of the more promising young actresses in Hollywood and also proved herself to be a fantastic writer in the process due to her crafting this masterpiece which was her first work. I really wish more writers took the time to actually create movies with the passion that she has. For a first time writer, this was as an impressive of a debut as I have seen in a long time.

The movie tells the tale of a young woman, Rhoda played by Brit Marling, who after being accepted in MIT, gets drunk at a party and goes for a drive. While driving, she hears a news report detailing that a mirror planet of Earth has appeared in the sky. As she looks up at the mirror planets she slams into a car carrying a college professor, his wife, and their son. Flash forward 4 years and Rhoda is released from jail and she has to get her life back together. The movie details her daily struggles of adjusting to a normal life and also questioning what this mirror world could mean for her. She also comes into contact with the man who's family she killed four years earlier. He does not know who she is and was in a coma for several months after the accident, so his memory is not at full strength. The rest of the movie deals with Rhoda trying to win a contest to go to the other planet, and she also beings a romantic relationship with the man who's family she killed.

The story of the other planet mostly takes a backseat to that of the tragic love story that unfolds throughout the movie. There is also a theme of redemption that runs over the course of the movie. Rhoda tries to do the best she can with her life and she only comes to terms with her situation and is able to move on when she is able to see that the man she hurt so much finally has some hope. The man, John played by William Mapother, is a completely hopeless individual when we first meet him in the movie and we see his evolution over the course of the movie. Each character is instrumental in the redemption and evolution of the other. They just don't realize how they are effecting each other right away and it takes some time in the movie for each character to realized how they have each changed. Rhoda does realize that the whole situation is very twisted but she realizes that she is making John happy and is willing to hide the terrible secret in order to preserve his new found happiness.

This is a movie that does an unbelievable job of creating questions within the viewer and really puts you into the shoes of the characters in the movie. I am not completely sure that I would have been able to do what Rhoda did through the entire movie. I feel as though I would have wanted to have gotten my life back to the way it was before the accident and put the past behind me. Rhoda goes the opposite direction and she cannot move on with her life until she has helped the man she hurt so badly. I'm also not sure that I would want to meet another version of myself. The other version will essentially be you but not truly because they have made different decisions and have a different way of thinking and reasoning. This is a strange thing to think about and in a universe where anything can happen then it is entirely possible that a mirror image of our planet exists in our universe. There must be other life in the universe and this movie take a very plausible situation and puts it on to film. The possibilities of this happening are slim but if it were to actually occur then that world may be entirely different than our own because of minor changes in decision making processes of it may literally be the same world as our own just as it is portrayed in the movie. The movie states that two worlds only started to differ when they each learned of the others existence.That was very interesting to show in the movie because the moment the two planets' discovered each other is also the moment that had profound effects on the main characters of the film.

This is easily one of the best movies that I have seen all year, and it ranks in my top five of the year. Brit Marling is an immensely talented individual and I hope she gets more opportunities to showcase her abilities on a larger scale. The plot and the questions it brings up really took this movie to another level because it kept you thinking of the movie for a long time after you saw it. This is a movie that really deserves to be watched and needed a bigger push from the studio to get more viewers. This movie deserves a 9.5/10 and could have probably gotten a 10/10 with a look at the other Earth after the discovery of our Earth. Watch this and enjoy, you will thank me later.