Atlantic City Weekly

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As the summer winds down, 
the relentless stream of summer blockbusters also slows down to a trickle allowing some small scale indie features to slip into the multi-plex, like the Sundance Film Festival hit Another Earth. And, with the special presentation of the 1968 car chase classic Bullitt last Saturday night as part of a “classic car cruise” at the Delsea Drive-In, it was also time for a road trip.


Another Earth pretty much defines the term low budget independent feature. Despite the fact that it has a science fiction component, the film is really an intimate portrait of two people consumed by pain. The film is a collaboration between director Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, the actress who stars in the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Cahill.


Marling stars as Rhoda Williams, a brilliant high school science student obsessed with the mysteries of the universe, who goes out and celebrates her acceptance to M.I.T. by drinking with friends. That night driving home she is both drunk and distracted by a new celestial body that appears in the night sky. That body appears to be an exact duplicate of the earth. However, before this becomes clear, Rhoda slams her car into a family with horrible consequences.


Her life changes and filled with regret some years later, she has an idea about alleviating her guilt by reaching out to the only other survivor of the crash, a composer and music teacher, John Burroughs (William Mapother, of Lost fame). Rhoda loses her nerve and doesn’t reveal who she is. Instead, she approaches him as if a total stranger, and provides something Burroughs needs, human interaction.


Their relationship is defined by the secret she is keeping but she is helping him reconnect with life. Meanwhile the world is abuzz with notions about this second earth and what it means in terms of being an exact duplicate, with each person on earth having a double on the other earth. However, the sci-fi element is really just a clever bit of window dressing surrounding the drama of whether these two people can survive a relationship built on pain and deceit when the truth is finally revealed.


Like most ultra-low budget films, the photography is grainy, the action is slow and one’s appreciation for the film hinges on caring about the characters. For me, Another Earth works. It is a nice change of pace from typical Hollywood fare. Expect Ms. Marling to parlay this low budget calling card into a career in more glossy Hollywood filmmaking in the near future. 


Another Earth   ***