Another Earth

Another Earth, a film by Mike Cahill, is one of those films that defines independent cinema, in all its successes and failures. Small and intimate, but with a kind of pretension and over-seriousness that makes you think you're in a seminar somewhere, discussing modes of alienation with a professor in tweed with leather elbow patches. It may be art, but it's not much fun.

The film's premise is that a doppelganger Earth has been discovered. On the night that this is announced, astronomy buff and future MIT student Rhoda (Brit Marling, who wrote the script), is so fascinated that she looks out her car's moon roof at the blinking blue dot and neglects to look at the road. She slams into a car, killing two third of the family--a little boy and his mother. The father, a professor at Yale (Willam Mapother) survives after spending time in a coma.

Marling serves four years in prison, and when she gets out Earth 2 is now a dominant presence in the sky. She is eager to give Mapother her apology, and seeks him out, but instead poses as a maid and cleans his house instead. In a twist that is really stupid, the two become intimate. Meanwhile, it is discovered that Earth 2 is an exact replica of Earth, and that everyone has another "them" on the planet. A mogul is going to shoot a rocket up there, and holds a contest for an average Joe to win a seat. Is there any doubt who will win?

I admire the attempt here, but the execution is off. Another Earth is a movie so solemn that it seemed like a very long funeral procession. Granted, the subject is not a happy one, but there was no let up, no alteration of tone. Marling and Mapother, whom I trust are better performers than this, seem to have nothing more to do than stare ahead vacantly.

There are also logistics problems. The filmmakers chose a metaphor (another planet where one might be leading a happy life) that is obvious and forced, and opens a can of worms. For one thing, we are told that it has been discovered while it is visible to the naked eye. Maybe that could be true before the days of Galileo, but not now. The Hubble Telescope missed it? Also, what is it's orbit? It seems to be acting like a comet, not a planet. And an object that size (see the poster) would wreak havoc on our tides.

Also, someone barreling into another car at sixty miles per hour would not get up and walk out of the car with only a nosebleed, especially without an air bag. The film also takes great pains to explain why Mapother would not know the identify of the killer of his family, but I didn't buy it. These plot annoyances might not bother me in a film that something else to offer, but mostly this film moped along, seemingly bathing in its indie credentials, but looking like a film that was shot by a cell phone.