The first few moments of "Another Earth" show us a nightmare, shot in quick cuts and dim nighttime shadows. A beautiful young woman (Brit Marling), having had too much to drink at a party, gets into her car and drives, but is distracted by the beauty of the evening sky.
Across an intersection, a family car pauses, its occupants smiling at each other for what they don't know will be the last time. There is a terrible crash, and a child is thrown from the car. The next thing we see are the words "Four years later."
The accident was just a few seconds long, a blink of an eye compared with the years that have passed, but time has done little to heal those who survived. Rhoda, the young woman, is released from prison after serving time for vehicular manslaughter. As she emerges, the film's focus seems to quiver and tighten just a bit, like she's blinking in unexpected brightness.
John (William Mapother), the composer whose wife and child were killed in the crash, lives alone and miserable in his family's home, debris piling up around him. Meanwhile, the world has gone on despite Rhoda and John's stillness; news reports tell us that "Earth 2," a planet mysteriously like our own, has suddenly appeared in the sky.
It's audacious of filmmaker Mike Cahill (who wrote the script with Marling) to throw in an entirely new earth as a subplot to a movie that's essentially a brooding romantic drama, a story of two lonely people drawn to each other by some seemingly inevitable force. Rhoda, thinking that somehow she must apologize, turns up at John's door but can't tell him who she is (odd plot point: Wouldn't he recognize her?); instead, she introduces herself as a house cleaner looking for work, and thus is drawn into his home and his life. Meanwhile, Earth 2 looms over all, benignly watching, like an understudy in the wings waiting to step in.
"Another Earth" is beautifully shot (every scene is a perfectly composed picture, with dust flying gently in the light) and poignantly performed, but there's a strange inertness to it. The tragedy at the beginning that kills something inside both Rhoda and John seems to kill something in the movie, too; it's as if it never wakes up. Nonetheless, it's a film that brims with talent and ideas; it stays with you for a while after you watch it, like the way a shadow lingers on a now-quiet road.
"ANOTHER EARTH"
Director: Mike Cahill
Cast: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Kumar Pallana
Rated: PG-13, disturbing images, some sexuality, nudity and brief drug use.
Length: 92 minutes
Playing: Pickford
