Now, I have been able to cross of Numbers One and Two, and I felt like writing a little bit about each one of them.
#1 - "Another Earth".
To quote Dione, "It's a good thing you liked the film, since you're exactly their target audience. If you didn't like it, they really screwed up."
I can agree with this statement, and I can be upfront when I say that this film was exactly everything that I wanted it to be. It delivered to me on every level, exactly how I was expecting/wanting it to.
The film begins at a party, where 17-year old Rhoda has learned that she has been accepted to MIT. Rhoda has always been fascinated by the stars and dreams of a life in astrophysics. On this specific night, Rhoda make a terrible teenage mistake, that results in the death of a mother and her child, leaving the father as the sole survivor.
From the beginning, we are given the juxtaposition of emotions ranging from elated jubilation of seeing our hopes and dreams in our future, to the shock and misery knowing what our actions have ultimately caused. The score for the first five minutes of the film really carry it well.
In an added twist of fate, this tragedy occurs on the exact same night that a bright blue star appears in our sky.
Fast-forward four years. Rhoda is being released from prison, and we learn that the bright blue star was actually another planet, which appears to be the exact same physical make-up as our own planet earth. And, over the past four years it's been getting closer and closer.
We only had a brief amount time of time to get to know what Rhoda previously was, but it seems fairly obvious that she is now a shell of herself. She seems to lack ambition, and asks her social worker to get her a job where she doesn't have to interact with many people.
At one point she finally goes to visit the site of her horrific accident, only to witness the widower arriving to leave a stuffed animal where his say was killed. At this point, Rhoda investigates the man - John Burroughs - and eventually gets up the courage to go to his house, in an attempt to apologize. However, she chickens out and makes up a lie about being sent as a trial-service to clean his home for him. Over the next few weeks, she continues to return under this guise, and slowly they begin to help each other out of their respective shells.
This is where the dramatic irony of the plot kicks into full gear, and works wonderfully. As their partnership evolves into friendship and more intimacy, the audience gets a wonderful look at how its troubling her psyche, and in relation to John, it's like watching a balloon fill with air, knowing that eventually it's going to explode.
A subplot to the film involves a mega-millionaire - I picture him as a fictional version of Sir Richard Branson - who has created a spaceship to travel to "Earth 2". Rhoda visits the website, which asks you to write an essay on why you feel that you deserve to go on the trip. I personally believe that (writer-director) Mike Cahill and (co-write/star) Brit Marling wrote a wonderful piece of voice over dialogue here, as Rhoda reads her essay as she composes it.
If you've seen the preview, it's no surprise to you that she ends up winning the trip (otherwise why would this film be about her?), however, before she embarks she finally makes the decision to come clean to John about who she is. It leads to two very powerful and emotional scenes between the two of them, where I found the tension and emotions very intense and honest. This emotional roller coaster you've been watching, hits some new lows.
The film then wraps up in a non-traditional, yet not-surprising twist that reminds us all that no matter how badly we've screwed up our lives, we have the chance to make amends for it.
Finally, the film goes one step farther, a la "Primer" and knocks the story out of the park! I compare this film to "Primer" in this simple way: When you watch "Primer", you sit through it, you witness the story, you learn the truth, and then the story feels like it's over. There is resolution. (In the case of "Primer" the resolution drives you to re-watch the film, to catch the clues you missed) THEN, "Primer" ends with one final shot, one final scene with no dialogue, but a simple reveal that opens multiple cans of ambiguity up for you to consider where the story could continue - and then the credits roll. The same is true of "Another Earth". The final shot of the film opens up many avenues of debate, questioning the hows and whys. And it works so well.
Personally, I believe I have it all figured out. I honestly think that I know the important pieces that were set up to explain the ending. I don't want to include spoilers in this write up, so perhaps I'll do another blog at a later time, or something. It's not as complicated as the ten-page essay of "Mulholland Drive". It's pretty simple, and what I believe to be correct.
In the simplest ways possible, the film is about heart and emotion. It's about mistakes and regret. It's about attempting to move on in our lives, even when we can't achieve the dreams we once had. The film is very well acted, and using some interesting cinematography that I believe aides in the realism of the piece. Brit Marling is beautiful to look at, but backs it up with some amazing acting talent. Along with Mike Cahill, she did an amazing job on the concept and story, and Cahill was able to perfectly capture the emotions of the story through the lens.
RATING: 9.1/10
