Another Earth (2011)

Directed by: Mike Cahill | 92 minutes | drama, science fiction | Actors: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava, Meggan Lennon, AJ Diana, Bruce Colbert, Paul Mezey, Ana Valle, Jeffrey Goldenberg, Joseph A. Bove, Jordan Baker, Flint Beverage, Robin Taylor, Rupert Reid

Where director Mike Cahill used to be praised as editor of fine music documentaries about Leonard Cohen and The Police, he is making his feature film debut with ‘Another Earth’. He doesn’t do that without merit, although the whole thing falters now and then and not all choices have been successful. Still, the film deserved a better fate than the shadow of ‘Melancholia’, which is admittedly a better film, but it has become such a hype mainly because of Lars Von Trier. Science fiction may also not be the right genre to experiment with, which Cahill is trying. He also cannot be denied guts; he wrote, directed, filmed, edited and produced the film himself. However, some of these choices work out better than others.

The film is small, but never really intimate and often just floats away at the moments when it gets intense. The thinking behind the subject (there is a second earth, so everyone has a doppelganger) is a lot more sophisticated than the film makes it seem. But the inner quest of main character Rhoda Williams (co-screenwriter Britt Marling) seems more like a thriller due to Cahill’s uneven camera work; the handheld camera style doesn’t fit the genre. ‘Another Earth’ feels like it’s working towards an immense climax, an all-explanatory conclusion; and it doesn’t.

Most of the work seems to have gone into the intelligent script and CGI recreating of Earth 2; both are excellently successful, but because of this, other qualities – directing, soundtrack and the aforementioned camera work – fall far back. Thus the film does not achieve what it could have become with another director – or fewer roles allotted to itself by Mike Cahill; a cult classic. But by not going big, ‘Another Earth’ never really gets going despite its original premise, which is a shame, because the psychological depth of the script only becomes clear far into the film. Unfortunately, most people have already given up.