Another Earth

From Siskel and Ebert’s thumbs up to Tookey’s turkeys all film critics have a way of rating movies. However, unlike wine buff Robert Parker’s 100 point method for reviewing fermented grape juice, most film systems are fairly opaque.

Most critics tend to focus on the individual movie at hand rather than say placing it somewhere on a scale between Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Citizen Kane.

I too have such a system, I call it my gut and my gut tells me that I don’t like Another Earth. While it is true that in my view 15 minutes could easily be trimmed from the running time, I don’t think it’s a “bad film” it’s just one that I didn’t particularly enjoy.

What’s it all about?

The plot is straight forward enough Rhoda who is obsessed with space gets drunk and crashes her car into another while staring into space at a parallel world. Once released from prison having served a short jail term, due to the fact that a woman and young child died as a result of the crash, she tries to make amends for what she has done.

Along the way she enters a competition to win a trip to the alternative Earth and starts a relationship with the husband/father of her victims. Fortunately, in an Earth shattering suspension of disbelief, the husband decided never to go to court or read a newspaper report about the crash ruling out any chance that he might recognise her. The movie concludes with Rhoda making a personal sacrifice in order to atone for her sins.

Reinventing the laws of physics

Given the fact that the filmmakers have stated they had ditched a lot of the space stuff - I won’t dwell on the fact that they got the science wrong - I doubt you are reading this because you have a burning interest in Kelper’s laws of planetary motion or telescopic image resolution.

Mastering the craft

Let me be clear that while I’m ready to find fault with the film, I’m also willing to recognise its good points such as the performance of Writer/Producer/Actor Brit Marling and the camera work of Writer/Director/Cinematographer Mike Cahill.

I must qualify the last point however, as the beautiful imagery is occasionally let down by the lack of practical or misplaced practical light sources. I hear some of you cry “don’t split hairs, remember the scene in Gladiator where one of the extras is wearing jeans and it won the Oscar for best picture!”

Do you really think Ridley Scott was aiming for that effect? Does, cinematographer John Mathieson cherish this image above all others when it is projected onto a cinema screen or broadcast on television? I think not.

No one embarks on making a movie with the intention of making mistakes, although many arise along the way. Did Lord Pirrie and Thomas Andrews set out to build a ship that would sink? No. Is that any comfort to the passengers of the Titanic? Once again I think not.

The point is if the film is engaging enough you can get away with it and Another Earth wasn’t.

Refrigerator moment – spoiler alert!

While it might not have been transparently obvious to all viewers, at the moment the competition is first announced, that Rhoda would win and then let John go in her place surely we can agree that the gaping hole in the ending cannot be overlooked?

I am of course referring to the fact that John goes off to the other Earth to seek out the doppelgangers of his dead wife and child, conveniently ignoring the fact that his own doppelganger is there as well!

Imagine for a moment that you get to the end of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader has just struck down the Emperor, saving his son and ensuring good triumphs over evil. But only for 5 minutes because someone forgot to blow up the Death Star and all the rebels are wiped out! Opps - hardly a satisfying ending is it? A bit like Another Earth and this review...