'Another Earth' is a 2011 science fantasy/ drama film and is the feature directorial debut for Mike Cahil. The film stars William Mapother and Brit Marling. I'd like to open with the fact that I had so much trouble trying to watch this film! Seriously! After looking for what feels like forever trying to find a decent torrent (cough cough find on DVD in the shops cough), the cable for my external hard drive decided to snap, so I had to wait nearly a week after that before I could actually attempt to watch it, and I must say, it was not what I was expecting. Warning, this review contains spoilers.
I was expecting a full on science fiction adventure including two planets that were identical, I was wrong. Its more like an emotional roller coaster revolving around two characters, on of which has spent four years in jail for killing a family in a drunk driving accident, and the other, a survivor of that accident who has been in a coma for a long time. I was really surprised to see that 'Earth 2' as they call it, wasn't actually a major part of the film, by that I mean that it isn't always about that planet, it is mentioned, but we never see a lot of it. It's weird because 'Earth 2' is central to the story, everything that happens, happens because of it, but at the same time, like I said before, it isn't something huge, it doesn't drive the film, it is the emotional journey of the two main characters that drives the film. Something else I quite liked but no one in the film seems to mention, is the fact the 'Earth 2' keeps getting bigger, at the beginning of the film its just a blue glow in the sky, then four years later it's a little bigger, then by the end of the film it's huge! I mean it is noticeably far larger than it was when it was first discovered (also it just seems to appear out of no where, suddenly everyone can see it, which is a bit strange), you'd think there would be some sort of panic about a planet that keeps on growing. The planet keeps growing up until the climax of the film, Cahil uses it to enlarge the plot and indicate its growing importance within the story.
The story itself is quite good, but the film suffers because of its slow pacing. After the eventful opening sequence, the film then slows right down and it isn't until about half way through that things start to pick up again. Luckily once we pass that half way mark, the story has gotten really interesting and it has the audience questioning where it will go. The film covers a large number of important topics, including under drinking, drink driving, murder (man slaughter), dealing with a traumatic event, the justice system and the possibility of a world similar to our own. So this film has a lot going on, and one of the major themes that reoccurs is this idea of what we would say if we met our self, which I think is not just relating to the planet that mirrors Earth, it's a metaphor about past, memory and regret and whether or not we would like ourselves (and we've all done in our lives) if we met ourselves in person. The ending is also quite good, it starts off with with the climax we'd all been waiting for, then an almost happily ever after moment (with a sad twist) and a shocking moment that links back to the theme of the whole movie.
So in conclusion, it is a good film, I enjoyed it. It has a strong story which suffers because of the very slow pacing of the film. Personally it isn't the type of film I'd normally watch, I like full on science fiction, not just a hint of it, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes film with a good/dark story acted out by decent actors/actresses. I'm going to give 'Another Earth' a 7/10.
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