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Another Earth
PlotScientists have recently discovered a second Earth like planet. Rhoda Williams, a seventeen year old girl who is fascinated by astronomy, celebrates her acceptance into Massachusetts Institute of Technology by drinking with friends. She drives home intoxicated while looking up at the stars and crashes into a stopped car, putting the driver into a coma and killing his pregnant wife and son. Rhoda spends four years in isolation in juvenile prison. After she is released, her family picks her up and takes her home. Rhoda is a very smart person and can get a good job, but instead she decides to be a school janitor. As Rhoda walks home after work, she comes across the intersection where she crashed into the other car. A man arrives and puts a toy on the sidewalk. Rhoda gets a good look at him from a distance and recognizes or figures it’s the man she crashed into that night of the accident. Rhoda looks up the accident online to find out the name of the man she crashed into and who he is. His name is John Burroughs and he was a collage professor and a composer. Rhoda tries to commit suicide by lying naked in the snow. There is a contest to win for a flight to Earth 2 and Rhoda participates. In order to win she must write 500 words why she should win the trip in her own words. Rhoda then goes over to the house of John Burroughs to apologize in person for what she did to him, but when she meets him she is too afraid to say it and says she is there to clean his house for her cleaning service. She spends the whole day cleaning parts of the house and then leaves. Rhoda knows the next time that she will see Burroughs, she won’t let her fear stop her from apologizing to Mr. Burroughs. She tries to talk to him, but he doesn’t have time to listen. She continues cleaning Burroughs’ house. John Burroughs has been in a depression over the loss of his family for the past four year. John begins to show a liking to Rhoda the more time she spends at his place even though he doesn’t know who she really is. They talk about earth 2. Both believe there is another them on that planet. Rhoda tells John that she has entered an essay in a contest to travel to earth 2 and he thinks it’s a bad idea. John gets upset after Rhoda after she washes his wife’s old clothes and tells her to leave. A few days later she sees John’s truck parked across from her house. He has come to apologize for the way he acted and would like to show her something. He plays with a saw like it’s a violin and it makes a high pitch noise. Rhoda thinks it’s beautiful and imagines space while listening. After that they go back to John’s house and make love. John tells Rhoda about his tragic loss of his wife and son because of a teenager who was drunk behind the wheel. He was so angry and can’t imagine what he would do to the person responsible. Because the driver was a minor he never got full detail of who it was. Rhoda has enjoyed her time with John so much that she has completely forgotten she is the person responsible and because of that she feels she might have made a mistake sleeping with John. Rhoda comes home one day and her brother informs her that the people from the contest have called. Rhoda calls them back and they let her know she has won the contest and she is excited. Rhoda goes to John’s house that night and tells him she won the contest. John gets drinks for them to celebrate. Rhoda finally comes clean with John and tells him the truth that she was the teenager who killed his family. John is furious and can’t believe it that she was right in front of him this whole time. He tells Rhoda to leave and never come back. When she arrives home the ticket to earth 2 is there for her, but she feels John needs them more so she breaks into his house. John is full of rage and tries to strangle Rhoda to death, but lets her go instead. She lets him know that it may be possible that his wife and son are alive on earth 2 so she leaves the ticket with him. Rhoda has given John hope, so he takes the trip. Four months later Rhoda picks up a smily face sticker while walking home and it is foggy outside. She can't see Earth 2 because of the fog. When she arrives in her back yard there is a another her from Earth 2 standing in front of the garage door waiting for her. 
Blaine: I like how it’s called “Another Earth” yet it focuses on two things and that’s Rhoda’s situation with her life and how she and John become close in a way and at other times they mention the curiousness of what’s on Earth 2. Rhoda is a very smart woman, but she is haunted by her past and lets the guilt control her. I’m glad she came clean to John of who she really is because she doesn’t want this lie to go down any further. It must be very awkward for John that he has now learned that he pined with the person who has given him so much pain by being responsible for the death of his family. Rhoda sacrifices an experience she has been dreaming of just to give someone else hope. The Rhoda from Earth 2 I think is someone who is parallel. Someone who either did take the trip to get to the earth she is at in the end or she is someone who is doing well with her life and isn't haunted by her past because she never crashed into John's car and kill his family. Another guess is that John returned to his earth and brought the other Rhoda with him. Maybe she's parallel or something that's my guess. Brit Marling is not only one of the stars of “Another Earth”, but she is also the co-writter as well along with director, Mike Cahill. Brit said as an actor you’re always trying to write something that is really outside of you. She never likes to take on parts that she feels comfortable about because she likes to feel a bit of fear because it’s different and interesting and she loves a challenge even though she’s one of the people who wrote the part. She also said in writing you end up doing a lot of your acting homework as you write because you daydream a lot as a writer and you come up with all these moments and scenes and things and then you are constantly looking for the best scene. Brit believes being an actor is very helpful in writing because it becomes much easier to shape the screenplay and to write when you have an actors experience of sort of losing your own identity easily in willing to work in someone else’s identity as you’re writing. She spent just as much time thinking as John as she did with Roda. Believing she was the character she was creating in the story. I've seen William Mapother in notable stuff, but he always had very small roles in those and this is the only movie I know where he is one of the lead main actors. and plays a character that focuses on him a lot. William was attracted to the the project after reading a script he described had a concept and he had never played a character before who moves out of grief into an acceptance of life and love. And he met with the screenwriters and producing team, Mike Cahill and Brit Marling and they all got along well. William had wanted to work more on the scenes with him and Brit a bit, so they would meet at William’s house about a week and they developed respect and infection for one another and realize they were all on the same page. “Another Earth” has one of the most inventive stories I’ve ever seen in a film and my rating on it is five out of five stars. Behind the scenes Awards "Another Earth" won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival back in 2011. Nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay. Nominated for Best Independent Movie at the 2011 Scream Awards. Music |