Another Earth
2011
**½
Director: Mike Cahill
Cast: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Jordan Baker, Robin Lord Taylor, Flint Beverage, Kumar Pallana
A planet, which appears to be an exact copy of ours, appears in the sky. The same evening, 17-year-old Rhoda ruins her promising future in a reckless car crash. Four years later, the world is obsessed with Earth 2, and the guilt-ridden Rhoda decides to approach the man whose family she killed in the crash. Documentary filmmaker Mike Cahill co-scripted his debut feature with the film's star, Brit Marling. The good news is that their unusual script doesn't take the direction you'd expect from the intriguing premise. The bad news is that the direction it does take is not terribly interesting or original. The story stays firmly grounded on Earth 1 and on the personal level, the second planet is merely a plot device which enables the final twists. The films it mostly resembles are the psycho-philosophical science fiction dramas like Solaris or Lars Von Trier's Melancholia. Speaking of Von Trier, Cahill's grainy, handheld visuals adhere to the Dane's Dogme 95 aesthetics.
