Another Earth (2011)

Rhoda: When early explorers first set out West across the Atlantic, most people thought the world was flat. Most people thought if you sailed far enough West, you would drop off a plane into nothing. Those vessels sailing out into the unknown, they weren't carrying noblemen or aristocrats, artists or merchants. They were crewed by people living on the edge of life: the madmen, orphans, ex-convicts, outcasts like myself. As a felon, I'm an unlikely candidate for most things. But perhaps not for this. Perhaps I am the most likely.

Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a 17-year-old astrophysics student who has just been accepted into MIT and parties with friends to celebrate the occasion. As she drives back home drunk and stares at the sky, she gets involved in a tragic car accident in which she kills a pregnant woman and her son while leaving the woman's husband, John Borroughs (William Mapother) in a coma. After serving time, she returns back four years later and takes up a low-skilled job as a cleaner at a school - probably as a punishment unto herself and a reminder for what she had done.

In the meantime, a replica of our Earth has mysteriously appeared and it is believed that when both the Earths became visible to each other, the synchronicity of the lives of people on each planet broke. It was Earth 2 that Rhoda would have been staring at the time of her accident. Which means that what happened on our Earth might not have occurred on Earth 2. As she tries to make amends and goes up to the music professor John Borroughs to apologize, she doesn't find the strength anymore and concocts a story to enter his life. John Borroughs, having survived the tragedy, has turned into a bitter and a self-pitying person. As she enters his life, it leads to a heartening intimacy between the two. At the same time, when there's an essay contest for people to provide a reason as to why they should be provided an opportunity to travel to Earth 2, Rhoda writes a touching essay that wins her the escape she has been looking for ever since.

The movie is mostly a drama with a touch of science-fiction element in it. The ending of the story has various interpretations. The most obvious one seemed to me was when Rhoda gives up her privilege to allow John to make the trip where he could explore the possibility of being with his family again, she is assured by the visit of the other Rhoda from Earth 2 that everything was fine over there. The other Rhoda, as we see, has gone on the right path and has become more successful. There are quite a few other fascinating explanations out there and I feel even the director, Mike Cahill, has intentionally left the ending open to interpretations. The portrayal by both Brit Marling and William Mapother as damaged survivors of a tragedy  is excellent, and the story by Mike Cahill (and co-author Brit Marling herself) does well to keep the focus on the emotional drama than on the science-fiction. From what I feel, there isn't actually a science-fiction part to it, and Earth 2 is only a metaphor to refrain people from acts of despair when things don't go their way. Overall, a good one-time watch.

Rating: 7/10