Story by Jeromy Verayo
What would you say if you met another you?
Another Earth is a science-fiction coming-of-age drama written and directed by Mike Cahill. It was screened on January 24, 2011, during the 27th Sundance Film Festival alongside Sound of My Voice, directed by friend and Georgetown colleague Zal Batmanglij which also starred co-writer and producer Brit Marling. The main cast included Marling and Lost’s William Mapother. It won the Alfred P. Sloan Award for focusing on science as a major theme in the film and had significant success in the box office earning up to $1.8 million despite its low budget cost of $100,000.
The film is about a seventeen-year-old girl named Rhoda Williams who, one night, goes partying with friends to celebrate her acceptance at MIT. On her drive home, while listening to the radio, she learns about another planet that could potentially support life. She gazes at the pale blue dot in the sky through her car window. Then, she collides with another car. Her recklessness inadvertently kills the wife, son, and unborn baby of John Burroughs, a music professor from Yale.
Four years later, Rhoda is released from juvenile detention. When her family comes to pick her up, her brother tells her about a contest to go to Earth-Two, the same planet she saw on that fateful evening only that it’s much closer now and has detectable radio signals. She soon finds work as a janitor in West Haven High. While walking home on the road where the accident had happened, she sees a man pull up on the side. The man puts down a toy robot at the spot where the kid had landed in the crash. She realizes it’s John. This knocks the wind out of her for a moment. She devises a plan to apologize to him and when she does, she loses her nerve. Instead, she lies about being a maid and offers a free-trial cleaning service. John avails the cleaning service. From there, their lives get tangled and they form a complex relationship. Eventually, her lies grow and catch up with her just as Earth-Two draws near her world.
The film asks two of humanity’s greatest questions in life: “are we alone in the universe?”, and “what would you do if there was another ‘you’ out there?” It provides an inward look of the ‘self’ in the grander scheme of things. Rhoda was not spared from asking the same questions. Perhaps this drove her to enter the contest in the first place—a deep-seated yearning in her soul to meet herself and discover who she is after all the trauma she has been through. It also discusses, here and there, the science behind Earth-Two without being too technical or dull. The theory of a multiverse adds a sense of wonder and mystery to the heavy drama of the characters’ lives.
One unique thing about the film is that it’s really delicate and quiet. This gentleness reels in the audience to listen more to the dialogue, which is sorrowful yet artfully written. It also helps viewers to introspect and reflect on their own lives in between scenes. The film is scored with hauntingly beautiful classical and synthetic music composed by Fall on Your Sword, a music production and audio post company founded by Will Bates. It also introduces the musical saw, also called the singing saw, which has an ethereal, otherworldly quality.
In terms of the visual aspect of the film, a great amount of detail has been invested in the movement as a sort of journey of the main character. There are a lot of scenes where Rhoda is traveling, mostly by foot; these takes, which are sometimes shaky and unsteady, make the experience of watching a more personal and voyeuristic one. The color grading, on the other hand, matches well with the emotions that the film is trying to convey—one of loneliness and longing. The computer graphics (CG) for Earth-Two is impressive. For a low-budget film, the shots which included Earth’s twin in the sky were seamlessly edited and looked very convincing.
As for the main characters of the film, Marling and Mapother were paired excellently. Rhoda’s shyness and softness are contrasted by John’s stern attitude and his tendency to snap at any moment. They have palpable chemistry on-screen and are able to make the audience feel at ease and uncomfortable just as well with their idiosyncrasies. As co-writer of the film, Marling knew what tone of voice and body language she needed to clearly send Rhoda’s message across and for the audience to empathize with her.
Overall, Another Earth is a thought-provoking film which will leave audiences asking philosophical questions about life and the universe at large. It dives deep into the complexities of the human condition and allows for a wide range of emotions to be felt. It’s a diamond in the rough, which is commendable because it is, in fact, a low-budget film. If anything, it is a mix of raw talent and exceptional storytelling.
This article is based on an earlier version that the writer submitted for the course Journalism 111.
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