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Another Earth
Another Earth is a rare, perfect balancing act between genre decadence and indie melodrama. The genre elements are obvious from the title and the poster art, and they are schlocky enough to make the staunchest defender of sci-fi weirdness run for the hills. Another planet is discovered nearby that can support life. Soon it becomes apparent that this planet is in our solar system and has a continental structure mirroring our own. As the planet draws closer—but never, for some reason, too close—we can see cities and other indications of intelligent life, though there is a bizarre amount of radio interference preventing us from contacting anyone on the planet. It’s not long before this planet is dubbed “Earth 2,” as it becomes more and more obvious that it is an exact replica of our home world. An Australian billionaire begins planning a shuttle flight to Earth 2, with a public essay competition for choosing other passengers.
Even the indie elements are cliched to anyone who has watched enough independent films. Rhoda Williams is a 17 year old high school student who causes a drunken car collision after a party celebrating her acceptance to MIT, coincidentally the same night Earth 2 is discovered. She spends four years in prison, after which time her spirit has been broken and her guilt has eaten her from the inside out. Subsequent to her release, she seeks out the only other survivor of the car crash, a music professor and composer who has since left his university post and spends his days in a drunken stupor (shades of Kieslowski’s Blue, perhaps?). Too cowardly to admit who she is when she first meets him, she instead pretends to be an employee of a cleaning service, and she begins working out a sort of penance by putting his house in order once a week. The way their relationship progresses from there will not be a surprise to indie fans.
Despite the genre decadence on both the sci-fi and indie sides, the movie still pulls together unpretentiously. Perhaps it even works because of the genre predictability, much as how Shaun of the Dead worked so well because each of the genres it mashed together—romance, horror and comedy—integrated all the predictable cliches. Playing various genres off of one another is something comic book writers have been doing for decades, and now filmmakers are beginning to toy with the idea in larger productions like Cowboys and Aliens. Maybe we’re seeing the start of a trend.
At its core, Another Earth is a story about the choice between forgetting the past and honestly facing yourself. When we do something horrible, can we face that courageously or will we hide from the world, even when it comes racing at us through space? Highly recommended.
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