Originally published in Cinema Knife Fight, August 19, 2013ANOTHER EARTH (2011) is a movie much like MELANCHOLIA (2011)—which came out at roughly the same time—presenting itself as an art-house science fiction film, but is actually more of an introspective drama, using a science fiction subplot as an underlying premise. Though both films focus on a character’s inner turmoil and self-obsession, MELACHOLIA remains, in story and tone, entrenched in the deepest wells of self-imposed misery throughout, ANOTHER EARTH gives its characters a chance of redemption, and healing.
I really enjoyed ANOTHER EARTH. Mostly because I
did not, based on the trailers, approach it with any expectations that at some
point CGI aliens would rain down on Earth through a space portal with rows of
spinning chewing teeth. On the contrary, the only bit of special effects
throughout the film is the beautiful sight of, yes, another Earth floating in
the sky. It serves as a trigger for the characters in the film, a focal point
which captures the hearts and dreams of those here on this Earth.
ANOTHER EARTH opens with a buoyant scene of
party goers celebrating high-schooler Rhoda’s acceptance to MIT, with kinetic,
celebratory music pounding in the background. Don’t let this fool you. As a
very drunk but happy Rhoda (Brit Marling, ARBITRAGE, 2012), who
also co-wrote the screenplay with director Mike Cahill) drives home, she hears
for the first time on the car radio about a new planet discovered in the same
orbital path as ours in the sky. Like every good drunk driver, she sticks her
head out the window to get a better view of the small blue spot in the sky, and
kills an entire family waiting at a red light. Almost an
entire family. The young father, a composer named John (character actor William
Mapother, known mostly for his dark role as Ethan Rom in the LOST TV
series, 2004 – 2010), survives. The scene is shocking and abrupt, a brilliant
way of changing the tonal gears in the movie from ‘everything is wonderful’ (be
it in Rhoda’s or John’s lives) to everything is over.
Jump ahead fours years later and Rhoda is released from
prison where we assume she has served time for vehicular homicide. Her
once-proud parents cannot relate to her any more, and her younger brother Jeff
(played with quiet, but genuine, intensity by Robin Taylor, STEP UP
3D, 2010) struggles to rebuild a lost relationship with his big
sister. Rather than try to pick up the pieces of her broken, once-promising
career, Rhoda takes a job as a janitor in her old high school in New Haven,
Connecticut.
While this is going on, the world has spent four years
getting used to the presence of the now-large earth-like planet (complete with
its own single moon) hovering in the night sky. It has gotten closer, but never
through the film is anyone concerned with the two planets colliding, ala MELANCHOLIA.
But that’s not to say the planet is not discussed. It’s talked about
constantly, by television and radio personalities interspersed between scenes.
This is the second and critical aspect of the film. Like
Rhoda’s occasional inner dialogue in certain scenes, the comments of those in
the media are a running soundtrack alongside band Fall on Your Sword‘s
techno-minimalist score. To truly understand how these characters think and
behave, knowing what is being rattled on about by everyone in the world (via
talk shows, news channels, radio shows, what have you) is critical. I highly
recommend watching ANOTHER EARTH with subtitles turned on.
Whether you find the DVD (if there are any surviving video rental stores in
your town) or do what I did and rent via Amazon or some such streaming service,
without subtitles the commentary is nothing but background noise, but as the
movie progresses, and especially towards the end, what they say sets the stage
for what is to come.
What is to come, you ask? Well, now that you’ve hung with me
this long I should give you the gist of the main storyline, when Rhoda crunches
up her nerves to go to the home of the man whose family she murdered four years
ago. He’s living alone, surrounded by the detritus of his own broken life (and
body, if the bottles of pills scattered throughout the house are any
indication). His life is a solitary mourning for his wife, son, and unborn
child. He drinks, sleeps, and wastes away. Rhoda knocks on his door (surrounded
by bags of trash on the front lawn as if he forgot to pay his trash bill) ready
to apologize for what she had done, but when John answers she loses her nerve
and tells him she is from a cleaning company offering a free one-day trial for
potential new customers. He relents and lets her in, tells her to start in the
kitchen then proceeds to ignore her from the other room. After a moment
considering how best to escape, she decides to clean his kitchen. He likes her
work, and tells her to come back the following week, which she does week after
week, tearing up the checks he gives her on the way home. Eventually he becomes
used to her presence and starts to open up to her.
The rest of the story follows along paths you would expect,
but others you would not. Throughout watching this film the first time (I
re-rented it the other day to refresh my memory for this review), I wondered
why he did not recognize her, or her name when she tells him, but the accident
left him a little messed up, and we learn at one point why her rather unique
name did not ring a bell. As the story continues, you truly care what will
happen when he learns the truth of her identity, especially as they grow closer.
Mapother plays the part of John with sad grace. He has an
everyman kind of air to him, allowing us to be in his place for a time, knowing
that yes, if the same happened to us, we could easily have given up. Marling is
a strong actress with a captivating screen presence who is very believable as a
woman holding on to so much self-loathing that she not only lives a solitary
life, but hides her beauty and personal potential behind dark hoodies and knit
caps. She does an excellent job playing dual roles as she slowly begins to
emerge from her imposed cocoon as someone she finds herself caring for draws it
back out.
Meanwhile, as the relationship between Rhoda and John plays
out, a billionaire philanthropist holds a contest, offering seats on a
spaceship he is building for a privately-funded trip to Earth 2, as it begins
to be called after a shocking live broadcast from SETI. The agency’s chief
scientist establishes communication with – herself. Seems the planet not only
looks like Earth, it is Earth. An exact copy down to
the people inhabiting it. Same history, governments and most importantly
people. At this revelation, the world is once-again enthralled with the blue
planet in their skies. The overarching question becomes, via a media
commentator is, “What would we really like to see if we could stand outside
ourselves, and look at us?”
Rhoda writes the required essay to win one of the seats,
explaining that early explorers throughout history weren’t famous scientists or
celebrities, but convicts and outcasts from society, seeking another chance,
another world where maybe things could be different.
The movie is subtly riveting, and I was reminded very much
of another indie film (and to this day one of my favorite science fiction
films): GATTACA (1997). Though GATTACA truly
is science fiction, using the genre to its fullest with very little special
effects, the focus on the film remains a yearning, a need to fit in the world
while knowing one is an outcast to society. The chance to go somewhere else,
even if it means dying on the way, is strong. How many times have we stood
outside and stared at the skies and yearned to know what was out there? Never?
Hmm, maybe I’m just weird. And outcast.
One character whose quirky eccentricities didn’t work as
well as the filmmakers had probably hoped was an older, blind gentleman who
somehow works alongside Rhoda cleaning the school. Though his presence and
occasional dialogue do contribute to the ethereal atmosphere of the movie,
something he does later in the film is just too dark and fringy to
work, in my opinion. Everything else seemed real, plausible, but he was more
like an eccentric character who came in seemingly to add to the surreal
atmosphere of the story. Director and co-writer Mike Cahill (who also teamed
w\up with Marling on the documentary BOXERS AND BALLERINAS, 2004,
his only other directorial work prior to ANOTHER EARTH) didn’t need
it. They did just fine with this movie without this character. Kumar Pallana’s
(THE TERMINAL, 2004, THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS,2001) performance
was strong on its own, but the story would have worked just as well without it.
The ending was a good twist and very satisfying in my mind.
It’s one of those that when the scene fades to black you’re left sitting in
your chair, chewing on it, working out what exactly it means. Like I said
above, you need to listen to the commentaries throughout (with subtitles) to
truly appreciate and understand it. I got it, and my daughter Audrey did, too.
I hope you do, too, because it really brings the entire film together.
To wrap up, ANOTHER EARTH is a hidden gem
of a film, quiet, beautiful and full of the promise of redemption and second
chances in the face of terrible consequences. As I said in the opening, it’s
not a traditional science fiction film, if it’s science fiction at all. Science
takes a back seat to human pain and emotion, to the truth of how we can become
so self-centered in our pain that we don’t let ourselves truly live in the
world around us. But, sometimes, we learn how anyway.
I give it four other Earths out of five.