Low budget, thoughtful and with little need for makeup - not usually the first characteristics that spring to mind when considering sci-fi. Another Earth has reworked the genre, replacing lasers with wii remotes, space duels with teary exchanges, and Sigourney Weaver with the lovely Brit Marling.
The young writer and actress has created a film of unique quality and consideration, presenting the spooky concept of a second you in a bare and human light. As mind-blowing as the premise is, it’s the earthly aspects of Another Earth that made my skin tingle. You won’t find any slimey aliens, and the one onscreen romance is far from intergalactic. The film does well to show that it only takes mopping a floor or playing a computer game to let the mundane trivialities of this earthly life unveil deeper truths on guilt, love, regret and the human condition.
Presented in stop-start, dusty, almost retro cinematic style, the film shows events as if artifacts of memory, conceptions of a world that is impossibly complex and haunted only by tragedies which are very real. This lack of Hollywood pizazz may catch the viewer off guard, allowing him or her to totally buy into the one aspect of the plot which is truly science fiction.
But even without this story of a second world, the destructive passion of protagonists Rhoda and John’s love story would make a painfully good drama in itself. The film gives us so much more than we need, exceeding standard expectations of sci-fi cinema and leaving its audience with unshakable questions to consider.
And so, hours after leaving the cinema, I’m finding myself gazing into my cup of tea, wondering: Who am I? Could I be better? Have I done things right? Would I change things if I could?
And more importantly, could this be my film of the year?
