Another Earth Review

• 11th Apr 2012

Newcomer Brit Marling plays Rhoda (She is also one of the film’s screenwriters and producer) a young woman who is the cause of a road accident that sees her sent to prison for four years, and is the cause of the deaths of the family of composer John Burroughs (William Mapother).

After Rhoda is released from prison she finds a solitary job as a cleaner and withdraws further and further from the world around her – finding intrigue only in the fact that we have a “second Earth” up in space above us.

The mystery surrounding this planet is kept to a minimum – otherwise we might be stupid enough to question the logic of it and the practical implications of such a wonder. But for Rhoda it is her one pipedream for escape until she by chance catches a glimpse of Burroughs.

Following him, she soon finds that he too lives a solitary life as a result of the crash and she finds a way t o insert herself into his life in order to aid his condition and by rights, find some sort of redemption along the way.

This strange and melancholy little drama caught the attention of a few critics over here, notable for the fact that it also came about around the same time as Von Trier’s Melancholia, But Another Earth stands firmly on its own independent feet. Anyone expecting a laugh a minute riot will clearly have picked the wrong disc off the shelf! Anyone expecting something a little more thought provoking will be pleasantly surprised. The only warning to heed is that the film is very miserable (deliberately so) and if you are in not fit mental state for sadness, then it can really string the weights to you and pull you down.

But the ideas the film has alone are well worth checking out. It may not be the happiest film, but it generates enough discussion to make it a well worth plausible film, that isn’t even really played as science fiction.

Steven Hurst