Another Earth (Mike Cahill, 2011)

[manicsounds]

There are many many interpretations for the ending of this movie. But given that the character of Rhoda had always been interested in astronomy since she was young, no matter what her fate, she would have written an essay to try to visit the other planet.

The one point I was not sure of, after watching it a few times was with the character of Purdeep the janitor (Mr. Littlejeans). I won't put spoiler tags since it's not really that much of a spoiler for the main story....

When I first saw it, I thought he put bleach in his ears and eyes to try to kill himself, and so he became blind and deaf.

But the next time, it possibly seemed like he was already blind, and later put bleach in his ears to deaf himself. (As the head janitor Freddie says "Yeah, didn't you know?")

Also that if you look at his performance, he seemed like he was blind, using the opposite end of the broom, etc.

Um, I don't mean to be infringing on handicap rights but, is it wise to have a blind person working as a janitor? How can he see what is dirty or not?

[j99]

Oh bugger, I had the opportunity to borrow this from the library today, but passed on it because I hadn't heard of it before. Regretting it now after reading all the praise.

[warren oates]

I wouldn't rush back to the library. I can think of about a bazillion better uses for one's time. This film just flat-out sucks. The script sports the kind of tendentious writing that you find in the worst undergrad classes. Even giving it the full benefit of the doubt, ignoring all the much better films it cribs from, it's a first-drafty mess of ideas and themes in search of a story. As if the makers watched Solaris and a couple of Bergman chamber dramas one weekend and thought to themselves, "How hard could it be?" banging out the story the next week and filming it shortly thereafter. But it's mostly like a riff on the worst kind of Amer-Indie drama,

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or even a Lifetime movie about drunk driving,

dressed up in light sci-fi clothing. After Shame, this was the 2011 film I hated the most, and both seem to be equally convinced of their deadly serious heaviosity without bothering to earn it in any authentic way. Why not watch the other film from last year about a parallel planet instead? At least Melancholia tries to do something new with all its influences and manages to connect the audience with real psychic pain instead of just indicating that stuff, as if merely mentioning grief is the same thing as dramatizing it.

[mfunk9786]

I tend to read reviews that contain the sentence "This film just flat-out sucks." carefully, and with plenty of reverence.

[warren oates]

If I'd been on the board when I'd first seen it, I might have taken the time to write a beat by beat takedown, but since I detested the film and did my best to forget it almost as soon as it was over, I'm left with only with that flat-out sucky aftertaste. Still, when I saw the lovefest that this thread was, I felt the need to speak up and say something. Compared to what it was inspired by, what it could have been, and to everything else that's out there Another Earth really isn't interesting as drama, sci-fi or American Independent filmmaking. Anyone who needs a more precise and freshly detailed dissent should just look for Ignaty V's "At The Movies" review.

[domino harvey]

Of course it's always good to have a dissenting opinion, but it doesn't look like you're interested in engaging the board in a discussion on the film's merits (or lack thereof) at all. Saying it sucks (twice, now!) and not elaborating beyond vague and broad declarations of opinion serves what purpose, especially on a board where by your own admission most people loved the film?

[warren oates]

I'm just trying to save some poor stranger a wasted trip to the library or at least give him pause. And, at least in this instance, I shouldn't really brook a deep continued discussion since the film isn't fresh in my mind, I have no desire to see it again and a large part of my problem with the film itself is the biggest problem of all: that, had it been handed to me in script form by a friend or colleague, I would have pressed for a massive page-one rewrite. There are some potentially intriguing ideas, images and themes buried somewhere in the mess. But it seems so sloppy, half-baked and ill-formed on the level of narrative -- in spite of some competent technical work in the finished product -- that I can't endorse the film at all.

Still, given all that, I'll bite: I'd love to hear how any of the sci-fi ideas or dressing ultimately matter to the film at all? Underneath all that, buried not so deeply, isn't the film really just a sort of boderline Sundance/Lifetime melodrama about the most obvious kind of Hallmarkified

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guilt, grief and new love?

In the future, I suppose I'll try to use more domino friendly curt dismissal words like "meh" rather than "sucks," yes?

[domino harvey]

In the future, I suppose I'll try to use more domino friendly curt dismissal words like "meh" rather than "sucks," yes?

No

[swo17]

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

[knives]

When you realize it doesn't open for an other two hours.

[domino harvey]

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card

[Mr Sausage]

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

When the book you need is nowhere to be found despite being listed as on the shelves? Or, worse, when that happens and you spend twenty frustrating minutes searching through all the Return carousels and shelves only to discover that it was actually in the library of one of the affiliated colleges and you just forgot to limit them from your catalogue search. But now you're too tired to walk all the way to whatever college has it, so you just put a request on it and go home. Or the one time in all your years at the University you actually need a book from the social science floor and that's the day it's closed for emergency repairs or something.

Hypothetically speaking, that is...

[jwd5275]

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

When you run by a very closed library on your way to work at 5:30 AM to return an item, only to realize that you have forgotten it.

[mfunk9786]

When you have to rent this sucky suck of meh suck!

[colinr0380]

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

When your trip to the library ends this way?

[swo17]

Alright, you guys win, I'll never go to a library again.

[CSM126]

I can't believe this wasn't the first thing everyone thought of.

[Brian C]

...isn't the film really just a sort of boderline Sundance/Lifetime melodrama about the most obvious kind of Hallmarkified

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guilt, grief and new love?

All this really tells me is that you've never actually seen a Lifetime or Hallmark movie and only have a vague idea of what they're like. I mean, like the movie or don't, it makes no difference to me. But this comparison makes you look like you're deliberately reaching for hyperbole just to get a reaction, especially since you include both perjoratives in the same sentence for maximum overkill.

So in other words, to answer your actual question ... no.

[warren oates]

Actually, Lifetime and Hallmark movies are kind of a guilty pleasure. I usually tend to enjoy the truly trashy ones, especially if they are about the mentally or physically challenged (Riding The Bus With My Sister) or out of control abuse of some sort like that timeless classic Child of Rage. But in this context I was reaching for something to underline the very cheap and contrived dramatic irony and the kind of obvious, flamboyant unearned pathos of Another Earth. Something like a Lifetime movie I once saw about a woman who falls in love with a man who got the heart from her dead husband's organ donation. He might as well have been the selfsame guy who

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killed former hubby in a drunk driving accident.

But I suppose the other half of what I was asking is: What, if anything, do the very high faultin' and from my perspective extremely muddled sci-fi ideas, images and themes add to film's narrative? Why does it need them? How does it use them? I'd argue that in this case genre elements are cover for the film's real agenda, which is much less complex than it wants to seem.

It's late and I'm tired, but here are some words I agree with from a Netflix user who's seen the same movie I have:

I've read complaints about the science aspect of things, many of them valid. However, while these things feel lazy, it's a small production, and it's beside the point, so if the human elements worked this wouldn't be a concern. But the human elements don't work. The supporting characters are flatly one-dimensional, existing only to further the trite emotional journey of the main character. The movie's presentation of guilt is obnoxiously entitled, presenting the performance of manual labor (gasp!) as an ennobling penance, such that the main character doesn't so much grow as transplant her self-love from being about her charms (smart, attractive) to her "depth" (look how sad I am ). Another Earth appears either laughably unaware of its main character's shallowness, or simply refrains from doing anything interesting with it - just as it refrains from doing anything interesting with any aspect of its premise. There are a few nicely-composed shots of the other Earth, but that's hardly worth paying to see it or the time required. If you really want to watch privileged people get off on how bad they feel, I'd recommend Kony 2012, which is at least available for free on YouTube.

So the muddled themes and ideas, the obvious plotting and the kind of superficial self-serving emotion pretending to be much deeper feeling. I can't remember where, but somebody described Another Earth as an "emocore chick flick," which seems about right to me. Not so much sci-fi or serious drama as it is a congratulatory feel-bad romantic weepie for the hipster set who'd never be caught dead watching the same sort of thing if it were stripped of its Indie street cred and pseudo-philosophical veneer and presented unironically as a cable Movie Of The Week.

[j99]

Didn't intend to start a row. I guess I'll have to watch it now to see whom I agree with! The problem was I only have a maximum of four dvds to rent at any one time, and the four I went with were:

Dogtooth (saw it before but had to see it again after watching "Attenberg")
Yojimbo (one I've been meaning to watch for years but never got round to it)
Wreckers (rather intriguing UK indie)
A Blonde In Love (fancied a Second Run after reading about "Mother Joan of the Angels")

Sci-fi isn't really my thing, and it did appear to have a "new age" slant running through it which put me off. However when "Solaris" was mentioned earlier I was kicking myself.

Is there ever such a thing as a wasted trip to the library?

There is when you've forgotten it's a Bank Holiday.

[warren oates]

Didn't intend to start a row. I guess I'll have to watch it now to see whom I agree with! The problem was I only have a maximum of four dvds to rent at any one time, and the four I went with were:
Dogtooth (saw it before but had to see it again after watching "Attenberg")
Yojimbo (one I've been meaning to watch for years but never got round to it)
Wreckers (rather intriguing UK indie)
A Blonde In Love (fancied a Second Run after reading about "Mother Joan of the Angels")

Don't even get me started on Yojimbo...Kidding, kidding.

Okay, I've had a little time, done my due diligence and gone back through this whole thread trying to get a little more perspective.

And it seems to me that to begin to appreciate the film as anything close to good or interesting you have to believe that the way Another Earth brings its main characters together isn't merely a poor contrivance but that the film is fully conscious and fully critical of Rhoda's utterly selfish and indulgent choice to initiate and continue the relationship, and that this is the true heart of the work and the crucial pivot of the film's ending. I don't see this distance between the film and its protagonist. And I don't think the film is nearly as smart, emotionally complex or self-reflective as domino and others give it credit for being, which goes a long way toward explaining our radically different reactions. But if there's any more detailed evidence for this view that hasn't already been offered up in this thread, I'd be curious to hear it.

As for Brian C not getting my Lifetime reference or thinking it's a baseless leftfield snub, I have a good friend who likes the film almost as much as dominio and even he could see instantly what I meant by it. And a younger relative, just getting into films seriously, for whom I recently screened Tarkovsky's Solaris who afterward said: "Now I can see why you think so little of Another Earth."

Another point of comparison that occurred to me are

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artsy Indie melodramas about guilt, grief and unlikely connections like 21 Grams, The Crossing Guard or Margaret, none of which I'm defending except to highlight their honesty about what they are up to in contrast with this one.

[mfunk9786]

Sort of like a movie I once saw

[colinr0380]

I've finally gotten around to this film after all the praise heaped on it in this thread and liked it very much. I think it is a great testament to the performances that a rather well-worn plot involving coming into someone's life under accidental/false pretences, feeling conflicted and then having to painfully reveal the truth when the relationship goes too far managed to be so affecting that it was almost like watching that plot again for the first time (and was the way that the grieving John's job was as a composer a little homage to Three Colours: Blue?)

It was easy enough to anticipate those wider beats that the film sticks to pretty faithfully but the truly wonderful aspect of the film comes in those small moments where the characters behave quite beautifully, such as the ripping up of the cheque or that wrenching confessional scene where Rhoda makes a beautiful move from third person storytelling to first person apology. I also thought that it was impressive that, in a film full of frequent effects shots of another Earth shown in the sky, the most visually spectacular moment was the one where Rhoda is folding clothes and you can see all the dust motes floating through the air.

[Black Hat]

Saw this for the first time last night and enjoyed it very much. While I see somewhat loose conceptual similarities with Solaris for me both stylistically and thematically I saw far more parallels with the Dardenne brothers' Rosetta. Solaris was a character, a driving force for the film's narrative where as Earth 2 was much more of plot device to push a story and chain of thoughts that existed independently of it. Granted Rosetta's fresher in my mind having seen it for the first time recently and it is in no way, shape or form as brutal emotionally, but the camera movements, Rhoda's walking and to an extent her desire, similarly misguided attempts, to escape an emotionally static place took me back to Rosetta's plight. It obviously lacked the hopeless doom of Rosetta, but both films pulled off the nifty trick of having me rooting for a protagonist who made questionable moral choices to say the least.

My interpretation of the ending:

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After the 4 months later card, at first with the way Rhoda walked up to her house, hand grazing on its side, it had me thinking has she made the trip herself now? Then when Earth 2 Rhoda appeared it never occurred to me that Rhoda 2 simply made the trip down as part of the mirror Earth concept. Partly because of the cracks in the mirror explanation given earlier plus the look on Rhoda 2's face and especially her wardrobe which was of a much more adult, professional looking young woman, not of anything Rhoda 1 would wear. My feeling was that the accident never happened on Earth 2 with Rhoda 2 coming down to Earth 1 to comfort/free Rhoda 1 of her guilt.

Terrific film, I look forward to watching more of Brit Marling and Mike Cahill's work who before this were both unknown to me.

[Trees]

I watched this film blind on a recommendation and enjoyed it. I thought Brit Marling was the big story from this film. She leaped off the screen and seems to be someone very special in cinema.