Another Earth (Mike Cahill)

[Dukefrukem]

On the night of the discovery of a duplicate planet in the solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.

It does look flawed, but there's some flashes of brilliance in this trailer. I'm intrigued.

http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/4579/425455-another_earth_poster_super.jpg

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[Winston*]

That is a very silly premise to be taken super seriously.

This should be a comedy and the pizza delivery bank heist movie should be a drama. Make it happen, Duke.

[megladon8]

I kind of really want to see this.

[Kurosawa Fan]

It's like Seven Pounds... in space!

[megladon8]

Am I the only one who thinks this looks good? :cry:

[DavidSeven]

Looks like the new trend of ponderous indie sci-fi as imagined by Alejandro González Inarritu (21 Grams). That's two levels of being too serious.

[megladon8]

I like those kinds of ponderous sci-fi films.

Solaris, The Fountain, Sunshine to an extent.


Also, just the trailer makes me tear up a bit, so I'm guessing this will be an emotional kick in the nuts.

[Lazlo]

Am I the only one who thinks this looks good? :cry:

I'm in.

[Watashi]

Looks like the new trend of ponderous indie sci-fi as imagined by Alejandro González Inarritu (21 Grams). That's two levels of being too serious.
How does this look anything like Inarritu? There's only one storyline!

[DavidSeven]

How does this look anything like Inarritu? There's only one storyline!

"A horrific car accident leads to some really depressed people crossing paths."

= Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel

+ another Earth = Another Earth

[megladon8]

Yeah, Inarritu sure has the market cornered on movies involving depressed people.

No one else should even bother anymore. It's done.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, I agree with Winston here.

[DavidSeven]

Come on. A car crash leading to a lot of melancholic interconnection is a recent cliche driven into the ground by Inarritu with minor support from Haggis. I can't be the only one that sees this.

This might be OK. Looks kind of boring.

[Watashi]

Come on. A car crash leading to a lot of melancholic interconnection is a recent cliche driven into the ground by Inarritu with minor support from Haggis. I can't be the only one that sees this.

This might be OK. Looks kind of boring.
There's two people being connected. That's not exactly "a lot".

Though I do agree that the movie looks boring.

[eternity]

That trailer is such a bait and switch. I haven't seen the movie, but it's obvious.

[Dukefrukem]

That trailer is such a bait and switch. I haven't seen the movie, but it's obvious.

Even if the trailer didn't exist, it's obvious 7 minutes into the film.

Anyone else see this? It moves along fairly quickly but the obvious bait and switch subplot is presumed for the minute the movie starts. The journey itself isn't all that interesting, but I guess there's some good moments.

[Chac Mool]

I saw this last summer and loved it. Definitely in my top two or three of 2011. It works because it focuses on the characters and not the premise -- and because it's so well-acted, the characters are believable, and they sell the premise implicitly.

[TGM]

I really loved this as well, for pretty much the same reasons. I loved how all of the sci-fi stuff was played out in the background to everything else. I was kinda disappointed to see it wasn't that well received, though.

[KK2.0]

I've watched this last year and liked it, well acted and all but I guess I would've loved it much more if:

they told what happened after she meets her doppleganger from earth 2. yeah, i know it's not the point but I was curious.

[Henry Gale]

I guess I'll be a voice for those not so taken by it.

It would be one thing if this film was asking questions that seemed universal and relatable, but the framing device of another Earth suddenly appearing (and all the wistful voiceovers about "Why?", "How?", "What If..." that come along with that) suffocate the rest of the film, which mostly focuses on the rather run-of-the-mill story of grief and regret otherwise. The biggest problem is that its sci-fi aspects not only leave very little in the way of impact on the overall plot and character development, but they also end up being presented and resolved in ways that make little sense to the rest of it. It almost feels as if the entire second Earth aspect of it was something written into an already existing (boring) script that Marling and Cahill hadn't quite found a unique enough narrative hook for.

It has the sort of ambiguous ending that doesn't so much leave you a lot to ponder as much as it just abruptly throws out one last major idea without much investment in it to make you care, cutting to black, refusing to explore it. I only see two ways to read the ending, and I don't think either of them really work:

1. Marling's character (it's been a little while so I can't say I remember anyone's name) ponders if on the Other Earth there was no accident and Mapother and his family are still alive and well since the derivation point was when the two Earths first witnessed each other. If this is true then there would have been no reason for her to have to spend time in jail and eventually write her letter with that particular story that spoke to those picking the winners for the contest.

2. The accident happened on the Other Earth but Mapother died (and maybe the rest of his family as well, but the happy ending is that they're still there for him to travel to) so she told the same story in her essay but in the end she never met Mapother to make their connection and to eventually give him the ticket. (Essentially a much less eventful, alternate version of the movie we're watching set on Earth 2.) She goes to "our" Earth to meet herself... and... interesting, right?!


But aside from how I may see the ending, I just think it's shoddily shot, thematically half-baked and even cliche in the execution of a lot of its ideas (which, for a movie with an overall premise like this, seems like it should've been impossible), with performances inhabiting emotions the rest of the film fails to convey or back up. Marling wrote the script, but seemingly forgot to give herself anything interesting to do.

Sadly, one of the worse movies I watched from 2011, especially when considering the potential for a modern, sci-fi-tinged morality tale with this type of idea. The whole thing basically boils down to: "Another world just like our own may have a lot of the same instincts and take similar actions!"