Because Who Doesn’t Love Alternate Universes?

So, I was spending some free time in Alexandria when we decided to go see a movie at a local Indie movie theater. I have since become convinced that I need to watch more Indie movies, because after watching some others through Netflix, I realized that they’re generally so much better than the mass-produced stuff we’re usually force-fed by Hollywood.

This brings me to a particularly gripping science-fiction indie which came out recently. Another Earth (pictured above). I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect going in, but when I came out, my mom and I spent the next hour or so in deep thought about the movie. You may also have seen the poster for this movie, so if you have, here is a brief explanation of the movie.

The premise is this: A successful young girl who has gotten into college goes out to a party and gets drunk. On the way home, she hears on the radio that something odd has been spotted in the night sky. While looking at this distant object, she hits another car which has a family in it. The wife and young child are killed.

Skip ahead a few years to our heroine named Rhoda Williams (played excellently by Brit Marling) getting out of prison. Her college scholarship is gone, her future ruined. The movie follows her attempts to pick up the pieces and move on with her life (working as a janitor in a high school) and eventually she meets the man whose family she accidentally took away. John Burroughs (played by William Mapother, notably of LOST) is a brooding musician also trying to move on.

They inevitably meet and Rhoda struggles with telling him who she is and what she has done. What follows is a grim, brooding, gorgeously filmed movie focused on the survivors of the initial tragedy. And wrapped around all of this is the mysterious object in the sky, which seems to get closer as time goes along, until you can clearly see that it is truly Another Earth.

Eventually, the space people with the huge satellite dishes try to make contact and discover that there is an identical version of everyone from our planet, on the other planet.

A contest starts to choose who will be the first to go to the other Earth, or Earth II as they begin to call it. Rhoda writes an essay and submits it, and (SPOILER) wins the contest.

Rhoda and John wonder whether everything on Earth II is exactly the same, or if it’s slightly different. Rhoda suggests that maybe John’s wife and child are alive somewhere on Earth II, and decides to finally tell him who she really is.

Obviously conflict ensues.

First of all this movie kept me guessing the entire time. What is actually happening? Is the appearance of the other Earth connected to the accident? Are the family members actually alive over there? Why does Earth II continuously get closer and closer to our Earth throughout the movie?

I want to discuss the ending, but it’s waaaaay too good to ruin here as a spoiler. The ending is possibly the best ending to a movie I have ever seen. This movie was elegantly executed in every detail, and in my mind deserves every award I could throw at it. The acting is phenomenal, especially in the gritty main roles, but even in the cameos. The concepts are intriguing and engagingly laid out, without being dumbed down. And the cinematography is in a world of its own…(PUN! Get it? Get it?) Even the special effects (minimal as they are) were smoothly and beautifully executed.

This went from going in having no idea what it would be, to being very high up in the list of my all-time favorite movies. Five gold stars from me. So go watch it, ASAP.

This has been a report by Junior Varsity aka Jason. Hope you enjoyed!