Another Earth (2011)

More ambitious than interesting. A story that wants to joint an epic sci-fi moment with a drama.

Not really working although seeing the Earth in the sky is quite interesting.

When I first saw Another Earth several years ago I thought that, like some science fiction out there, it was light on the science and heavy on fiction. Fantasy, maybe. I was okay with that as long as the story and characters were strong. Besides, nowadays it seems like many mainstream physicists are seriously promoting the ideas around multiple universes or perhaps even an infinite number of alternate universes, perhaps science is catching up with the fiction. (Though I still think a planet popping into our galaxy so close to us would cause cataclysmic tides and whatnot.) . In any case, I recently bought and downloaded a digital version of it to watch it again.

But Another Earth isn’t about physics or science or what would become of humanity if a twin earth and moon suddenly showed up in our sky. It is about a heart-stopping event that cause a planet full of people to stop what they are doing and look up and wonder. Is that earth different than ours? Am I up there, and if so, is that version exactly like me or have they made different decisions that affect who they have become? Could I have made different decisions, or was this version of me locked into what I decided and thought? And in the case of our lead character, Rhoda, it leads her to a path to seek forgiveness and try to make up for a tragic mistake she made a couple of years earlier, actually on the day the second earth appeared.

So I will say no more about the plot, let alone the surprising little twist deep in the movie. You really feel for these characters. They seem real and you care about them. Kumamoto Pallana steals the scenes he is involved with. Because of the internal turmoil and the questions Rhoda is asking herself, even ordinary interactions with other characters feel imbued with deeper meaning. As a side note, it was written by the woman who plays Rhoda.

Try not to watch it when you are tired, but do try to watch it.