What would it be like to meet
yourself? What would you ask? What if your other self was a more successful
version, or perhaps one that has suffered far more than you? What would you say?
Another Earth...does
not answer any of these questions. It
does, however, tempt the idea, and it does so with a thoroughly profound story.
Mike Cahill’s first directorial crack at
a feature-length fictional plot treats its audience with a rich, multilayered
cake of a story. At the film’s core is a
very human story enclosed within a science-fiction scenario. The latter plays a more background role,
fueling its potent core with thoughtful questions and intriguing new directions
that wouldn’t have been possible with a story grounded in realism. The film’s “lack” of forefront sci-fi elements
possibly has to do with its extremely small budget of around one-hundred
thousand dollars (note that the indie film Ex Machina had around a fifteen-million-dollar
budget). Regardless of whether or not an
increase in money would have altered the plot, the film’s chicken feed budget
seems to have ultimately worked in the film’s favor—forcing the writers to get creative with presenting its sci-fi elements and placing more effort into
crafting a damn interesting story as compensation.
At its human core is protagonist
Rhonda Williams (Brit Marling, who co-wrote the film’s script along with its director
Mike Cahill), an aspiring astronomer who has been accepted into MIT. Her inspirations are cut short, however, when,
after celebrating her acceptance with friends, makes the very poor decision of driving home intoxicated. Rhonda ends up
crashing headfirst into the car of a well-known composer and his family—killing
the pregnant wife and young son while sending the dad into a coma. Rhonda serves a four-year prison sentence, yet even after release suffers immensely from her own guilt and grief over one bad
decision. She becomes reclusive and monotone
in expression, showing little motivation for anything and getting a custodian job
that requires minimal contact with others.
The only person Rhonda does not shun
away is an elderly fellow custodian named Purdeep (Kumar Pallana), who gives
her advice about clearing her mind to find peace. Purdeep is blind, having previously poured
bleach into his eyes, and later pours bleach in his ears to go deaf. Similar to Rhonda, the man has his own past
demons he’s trying to deal with. There’s
a heartwarming, heartbreaking scene where Rhonda goes to visit Purdeep in the
hospital, who immediately recognizes her snuggling up beside him despite being
both blind and deaf; “Rhonda. You are wondering why. No. No. No. You know why.”
Eventually, the grief becomes too
great and Rhonda tries killing herself by lying naked in the freezing cold
snow. Rhonda ends up surviving her attempted
suicide and goes to revisit the spot of the crash, by chance spotting the
recently awakened composer mourning at the same spot. Rhonda follows the man John (William Mapother)
home in an attempt to reveal her actions and apologize yet gets cold feet at
the last second and quickly makes up a lie about her being a maid there
to offer a free trial cleaning service.
John has, likewise, spiraled into grief from the crash’s aftermath and become
a recluse from society. He is unaware of who Rhonda truly is—having had
his brother rip up all documented evidence about the intoxicated driver for
fear of what he might do to them if he learned their identity—accepting her
offer and hiring her to clean up his disheveled mess of a house. Rhonda continues to practice telling John the truth
at home, but keeps losing her nerve—instead, putting all her effort into vigorously
cleaning his house (even buying cleaning supplies with her own money) while
ripping up all the checks John gives to her.
The two star-crossed grievers start
getting closer with each other, John inviting Rhonda to eat TV dinners and play
Wii boxing together. The two begin to
show color and life again, being especially noticeable for the audience who, up
to this point, have mainly seen Rhonda as a shell of her past self. One of Another Earth’s highlight
scenes occurs when John gets a massive headache after exerting himself too
much. In order to try to help with the
migraine, Rhonda tells John a story about the first person to go into space:
Rhonda: You know that story of the
Russian cosmonaut? So, the cosmonaut. He's the first man ever to go into
space…So he goes up in this big spaceship, but the only habitable part of it's
very small. So the cosmonaut's in there, and he's got this portal window, and
he's looking out of it, and he sees the curvature of the Earth... for the first
time. I mean, the first man to ever look at the planet he's from. And he's lost
in that moment.
Not since the opening scene has
Rhonda shown such life in her. For the first time, John gets to see the once aspiring student
who loved astronomy and dreamed of space:
Rhonda: And all of a sudden this strange
ticking... Begins coming out of the dashboard. Rips out the control panel,
right? Takes out his tools. Trying to find the sound, trying to stop the sound.
But he can't find it. He can't stop it. It keeps going.
As she gets to the ticking part, Rhonda
begins tapping the table with the end of her knife in a steady rhythm. Marling’s acting is superb here as her emoting
grows more frantic in conjunction with the increasing speed of the tapping, yet
her voice remains soothing and calm in a mesmeric, comforting way:
Rhonda: Few hours into this, begins to
feel like torture. A few days go by with this sound, and he knows that this
small sound... will break him. He'll lose his mind. What's he gonna do? He's up
in space, alone, in a space closet. He's got 25 days left to go... with this
sound. So the cosmonaut decides... the only way to save his sanity... is to
fall in love with this sound. So he closes his eyes...
At this point Rhonda gently makes
John close his eyes, and as her tapping slowly comes to a halt does the
soundtrack commence with a beautifully elegant violin piece as John smiles contently:
Rhonda: ...and he goes into his
imagination, and then he opens them. He doesn't hear ticking anymore. He hears
music. And he spends the remainder of his time... sailing through space in
total bliss... and peace.
There is no factual account of a Russian
cosmonaut trapped in space with a tapping sound, nor does the film take from
any folk tale, yet it’s told so convincingly that, the first time I heard it, I was
easily willing to believe its authenticity.
Or, perhaps, I simply wanted to believe it was true. That Cahill and Marling could craft such a wonderfully
organic-sounding little story and present it in such a beautifully captivating manner deserves immense praise. What an enchanting. lovely scene.
Later on, John gets his own chance
to impress when he brings Rhonda to a theater and finds the courage to play for
her for the first time since his accident.
Using a violin bow and a saw, John begins playing an eerily beautiful
tune. The music is ghostly and sounds out
of this world, yet also tranquil and pleasing on the ears. For Rhonda, the music conjures imagery of being
in space, away from the world and all her troubles—just her alone in the serene
beauty of the cosmos. What’s so
impressive about these two great scenes is how minimalistic they are in terms
of camerawork. These scenes are about as
basic as you can get when it comes to visual cinematography, and yet through
effective acting, sound, and pacing, they are able to craft the seeming
wonders of space exploration far better than many blockbuster space-focused
films. That's some damn good use and
showcasing of cinema’s illusionary capabilities.
Now, most savvy viewers will by
this point know where John and Rhonda’s relationship is going, and soon enough,
the two’s revival of passion into each other's lives turns into physical passion.
Yet the dark truth behind their
relationship still resides, and it begins haunting Rhonda again when John tells
her all about his past, as well as the fury he feels towards the drunk driver
that brought him such misery—the very person who is now bringing him such
happiness. Rhonda finds herself once
again racked with guilt,
looking at herself in the mirror with appalling disgust before immediately
throwing up. I’ve given much praise to
the human element of Another Earth, and yet I’ve yet to even touch the
outer layer that forms this very story—that is to say, the other Earth in Another
Earth.
The story opens with scientists discovering
a small blue planet far off in space that may possibly support
life. It's this very planet that
distracts the intoxicated Rhonda while driving and causes her to crash
head-first into John's car. Four years
later, and the planet has gotten startlingly closer—appearing identical to our own Earth, complete with its own moon. Things get even stranger when Earth makes
satellite contact with the identical planet and are answered by the exact same
individual that radioed in—complete with the same childhood memories. The entire world falls into a frenzy of
questions as they realize the planet may very well be an exact mirror of their
own Earth. Discussions begin flying
around about the end of the world(s), whether or not invasions would be
possible or simply end in MAD as whatever we do, they will do as well, and street
preachers rambling how the other Earth is not real and merely a projection of their
own Earth.
The film leaves it ambiguous as to
why another Earth, referred to as Earth 2, has appeared, in addition to why only
Earth has appeared, and not, say, the other planets and/or Galaxies along with
it. The scientific explanations are left
unexplored, as are the darker, grimmer themes involving Earth 2 coming closer
and closer into range with our own. The
best explanation I can produce is the plot’s limited perspective from Rhonda, a
person whose life has already been destroyed in a way and would care a whole
lot less about the possible impending collision of both worlds. With a minimalistic budget, the filmmakers make
the best out of their situation with a minimalist, yet highly effective Sci-Fi
approach. Earth 2 Is consistently seen
in the background throughout Rhonda’s day; always overlooking and drawing closer and closer by the
day like the Moon in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
Rhonda ends up entering an essay
contest sponsored by a millionaire entrepreneur and wins a spot on a flight
path to Earth 2. She tells John who
initially feigns excitement and happiness over the situation yet ultimately reveals
his true colors in a very potent delivery; “Don't go…Please don't go. We're so
close to something here.” Rhonda finally
finds the strength to tell John, through a transparent story, who she really
is. The reveal goes about as one might
expect and their relationship is immediately shattered, to the point where John
becomes unable to control his rage anymore and, in a very intense scene, begins
choking Rhonda, though he ultimately can’t bring himself to kill her.
Rhonda tells John of a theory she
heard called the broken mirror theory that hypothesizes the moment the two Earths
noticed one another, the parallel timelines between them broke. Since Rhonda crashes while looking at Earth 2,
she theorizes that her parallel self may have done otherwise—meaning John’s
family is still alive on Earth 2. Rhonda
ultimately gives her ticket to John, who accepts and becomes one of the first
few to travel to the other planet. The
act seems to finally quell Rhonda's immense guilt, showing contentment at her
custodian job. Four months later, while
returning home from work, Rhonda finds another Rhonda waiting for her—the later
dressed in a far more successful attire. Just as they are about to interact, however,
the film cuts to its credits.
The film never gives answers to its many questions brought up, yet these questions were never the point. It is the journey, not the destination that Another
Earth is focused on, and it is a potent character-driven journey about
isolation, grief, love, anger, despair, and redemption all bundled into a
low-budget science fiction. Another
Earth is a prime example of how one can achieve so much with such little
budget. A powerfully bittersweet,
multi-layered story that engrosses from start to finish.
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