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Another Earth (2011)

Director: Mike Cahill

Time Out rating

Average user rating

6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

This is the first drama feature from young American editor and documentary-maker Mike Cahill, and his low-budget, high-concept indie movie fuses intimate emotion and vast cosmic ideas: its intense drama about regret and redemption plays out in a sci-fi world that posits an alternate universe. The childhood dreams of Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) of studying astrophysics at MIT are shattered when she causes a car accident that destroys a family and leaves a music composer, John Burroughs (William Mapother), in a coma. After four years in prison, Rhoda takes a job as a school caretaker and tries to come to terms with her past.

A visit to Burroughs’s house, during which Rhoda intends to make a heartfelt apology, ends instead with her offering him a free trial on behalf of a fictitious cleaning company. Instead of wiping the slate clean, Rhoda ends up as the composer’s cleaner, and eventually his lover – without ever revealing who she is. As this risky relationship develops, cosmic discoveries are being made: a second Earth, a replica of our own that seems to exist in a parallel time dimension, appears in the sky. Rhoda enters an essay competition to win a flight to Earth 2, pondering the philosophical question: if she can’t live with herself here, might she be able to live with another version of herself there?

Cahill’s visually inconsistent first feature tries to beam epic sci-fi concepts into a micro-human drama, refracting its thought-provoking ideas through the prism of the central emotional relationship. Sadly, it often feels over-worked and overwrought, an impression not helped by Fall On Your Sword’s irritating score and Ryan M Price’s intrusive sound design. But it’s nothing if not ambitious.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London Issue 2155: 8 – 14 December, 2011

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User reviews of this film

David said...

Posted on Jan 15 2012 22:03 Beautiful story about forgiveness

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VioletP said...

Posted on Dec 16 2011 19:29 Good film. The styling of Brit Marling on the poster and promotional material reminded me of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus". Clever.

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Mike said...

Posted on Dec 16 2011 17:08 I’m glad I didn’t stop to read the Nigel Floyd/Time Out review before I saw this film. (I don’t ever take notice of Floyd reviews, as they’re often inaccurate.) I thought this was a good movie. Some of the themes in this film have been explored in other movies – the perpetrator of a crime befriending the victim; parallel lives; and so on. But I thought the themes worked very well in this movie. I thought Brit Marling and William Mapother extremely well cast (though possibly Marling looks older than the 21 y/o she’s supposed to be playing). The photography and CGI of the second earth is good – and at times as haunting and breathtaking as it ought to be given influence it has on Marling’s character. This movie doesn’t concentrate on being a typical sci-fi film – the sci-fi is a secondary theme much of the time.
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From the credits it looks like director Mike Cahill had a hand in pretty much everything from script, through to production – and if Wikipedia’s to be believed, for a 32 year old that’s impressive.
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I’ve seen this movie twice, and liked it just as much second time round. I enjoyed the score – particularly a short piece of classical style music in which I think one of the producers - Phaedon A. Papadopoulos - had a hand.
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I think some of the Time Out staff should take a long hard look at their stance on film reviews, and celebrating the achievements of younger film makers in a tough block-buster driven market. Time Out fell over itself when David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones released his first film “Moon” – which I thought was mediocre, and often very clichéd. Given how involved Mike Cahill’s been involved in this film, what he’s achieved here should be celebrated not berated – Nigel Floyd take note. 7/10 or 4 stars.

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critique said...

Posted on Dec 15 2011 18:55 Interesting, refreshingly different drama. 3 and a half stars.

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Blaize67 said...

Posted on Dec 14 2011 14:53 A nice little movie, and if you're adult and want a night out, there's not much on offer till later this month. A warning to sci-fi buffs this is not really sf. Marling is well worth watching even if the directing has clunk to it.

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timothy said...

Posted on Dec 12 2011 19:36 not seen the film yet- why oh why do certain Time out film reviewers feel it neccessary to ploddingly tell us Every detail of the film ? and oh so negative on this particular review! Please leave Some suprises for the humble moviegoer.

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