Review of Another Earth (2011) by Christopher R — 11 Jan 2012

Another Earth is more magic realism than sci-fi, but because that style is so seldom seen in cinema a good deal of the negative reviews for the film focus on how the movie fails to give us a convincing explanation for the strange phenomenon. Also if looked at as a straight drama it is rather pedestrian and contrived. Fortunately, the two elements become something greater than their parts when put together and while not a perfect film, we get an interesting philosophical examination of two people struggle with the harshness of their realities and the promise that a sudden glimpse of the fantastic has given them.

Brit Marling (who also co-wrote the script) plays a teenager who while driving home drunk after a party slams into another car and kills a pregnant woman, a young boy and puts a man in a coma. After serving four years in prison, the former MIT hopeful is stuck cleaning toilets at a high school and when she learns that the man whose family she killed is now awake, she attempts to contact him to make amends.

What results is one of those movie plots where two people are brought together but only one knows a secret that they share a past. There aren't a lot of surprises in this element of the movie but the interaction between Marling and William Mapother , as a once brilliant composer now living a grief filled existence, is mostly well written and very well acted. We know that the other shoe will drop but we don't know when and the movie is able to build a good deal of suspense from that promise.

Where another layer of depth to this seemingly mundane story comes from is the idea that earth has come in contact with another planet earth that is almost identical from our own. The planets began to diverge when they became aware of each other and this brings all sorts of interesting questions into play. Another Earth may not be as moving a study of grief as John Cameron Mitchell's brilliant Rabbit Hole or as complex as as Lars Von Tier's remarkably similar movie Melancholia, but first time director Mike Cahill has made a film that is a rich and complex film in its own right and well worth experiencing.

Among the films detractors is New Yorker critic Anthony Lane who states, "anybody who can explain the final shot deserves a refund.".

Can anybody explain Lane's nonsensical review.? If he is trying to say that the movie doesn't make sense then why would somebody who could explain it WANT a refund. Another Earth ends with one of the boldest and most unexpected final shots for any movie that I have seen in a long time. It took a lot of guts to end the movie at a point where more questions are asked than answered. It is the most compelling and daring ending I have seen since Lucky McKee's 2004 horror film May. If it infuriates some people so be it.