Featured Audience Ratings

• Jason R

  
  Intense without melodrama, literary in its storytelling, and acted with passion, it's everything one can ask for from a movie that's hardly been heard of.

• Gregory D

  
  This film feels as though it should have been a television series. There's considerable potential in the setup and the content. This film could have been the next Lost or The Walking Dead. Instead the surface of 'another Earth' is barely scratched. What we are left with… More
  This film feels as though it should have been a television series. There's considerable potential in the setup and the content. This film could have been the next Lost or The Walking Dead. Instead the surface of 'another Earth' is barely scratched. What we are left with is an interesting, somber and twisted relationship between two characters. That aspect of the film was well done, but somehow the story feels incomplete.

• paul s

  
  Another Earth takes has an interesting sci-fi-ish concept, but while the concept gives the rest of the film some gravitas and the opportunity for some philosophical navel contemplation, the actual concept is a bit weak and definitely a distraction. I believe it won't be giving… More
  Another Earth takes has an interesting sci-fi-ish concept, but while the concept gives the rest of the film some gravitas and the opportunity for some philosophical navel contemplation, the actual concept is a bit weak and definitely a distraction. I believe it won't be giving too much away in informing you that the sci-fi aspect is in the title. Yes, suddenly another, duplicate earth appears; called earth II (and in a nice touch, one pundit questions whether the denizens of Earth II think of themselves as Earth, and that WE are the copy). There is a very weak explanation as to how and why, and I suppose one could swallow the concept - but for me it kept getting in the way of the very personal story that rests at the heart of the film. For example, there's a scene in which a family sits glued to the TV, watching a SETI scientist sitting at a console next to her laptop computer, trying to "get in touch" with the new planet. OK, if this was 1965 I'd buy it - but in 2011 - c'mon! As I mentioned, there is a very personal story here, involving a young woman who makes a critical mistake, and how that one day in her life affects not only the rest of her life, but the lives of others. Again, there is a bit of deus ex machine towards the end of the film that gives rise to the possibility that all moments are just reflections (our lives included), and somehow we might erase or get past those awful moments. This makes a certain degree of sense to the characters involved, but ends up being a kind of metaphysical hocus pocus, especially when it is revealed that this "other" earth is indeed a copy of our own - and peopled with other versions of ourselves. Another flaw in the script comes when the film's heroine (a steady performance by co-writer Brit Marling) tells the shattered widower that due to a "break" in the continuity brought about by the recognition of the duplicate earth, he could be re-united with his dead wife and child. One problem - that family unit would remain intact - in other words the widower would have to deal with himself as a rival. Aside from these missteps, this indie film has some very nice bits of cinematography and the core story of both the heroine and the widower slowly re-finding their humanity works well, though I'm not sure if there's enough meat there for a feature length film; meaning that the metaphysical, sci-fi angle is necessary even if it detracts.

• Cynthia S

  
  Different. Unusual. Interesting....slow. But, the ending was quite good, and left me contemplating what it meant. Any movie that does that for me is ok in my book.....

• Carlos M

  
  An unoriginal little drama about loss, guilt, atonement, etc., with a huge amount of clichés and using the interesting concept of an alternative Earth as a cheap metaphor for a "new chance". At least Marling and Mapother do a very great job despite the weak project they are… More
  An unoriginal little drama about loss, guilt, atonement, etc., with a huge amount of clichés and using the interesting concept of an alternative Earth as a cheap metaphor for a "new chance". At least Marling and Mapother do a very great job despite the weak project they are in.

• Anthony L

  
  It was unfortunate that this film was realised at the same time as Melancholia. Both films are melancholy but they are very different films, Melancholia got all the publicity and Another Earth was overlooked. Another Earth is rightly heralded as an Indie triumph. It had big ambitions… More
  It was unfortunate that this film was realised at the same time as Melancholia. Both films are melancholy but they are very different films, Melancholia got all the publicity and Another Earth was overlooked. Another Earth is rightly heralded as an Indie triumph. It had big ambitions and I think all of them have been exceeded. I love the idea and I thought the direction, script and general flow of the film was excellent. Some of the visuals were stunning, layered with scientific narration, they became thought-provoking and quite powerful. I'm all for indie films and I'm all for originality, this film has both in spades. I'm not sure about the final scene but overall, I thought this film was great.

• Mark W

  
  Director Mike Cahill and star Brit Marling make their feature film debuts after their 2004 documentary "Boxers and Ballerinas". Their earlier collaboration focused on the lives of people from different parts of the world. This film has a similar documentary style and… More
  Director Mike Cahill and star Brit Marling make their feature film debuts after their 2004 documentary "Boxers and Ballerinas". Their earlier collaboration focused on the lives of people from different parts of the world. This film has a similar documentary style and explores a similar theme. Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a promising student who crashes her car one night, when news breaks that a duplicate Earth has been discovered. A family are killed in the crash but only her and the father John Burroughs (William Mapother) survive. On her release from prison four years later, Rhoda bluffs her way into Burroughsâ(TM) life as a cleaner, with the intention of revealing herself as his family's killer. Meanwhile, a competition is launched to find the first visitor to "Earth 2", where the meeting of your 'other self' is a very real possibility. This film has such an excellent conceit that's so intriguing, that the delivery fails to do it justice. It's slow and tedious. Keeping it as realistic as possible, Cahill's handheld-camera is up close and personal to his characters. It add realism but ultimately fails to entertain. The philosophical questions posed are the closest you'll get to any form of entertainment but these questions are better considered in your own time (read Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave"), rather than watching the tediousness played out onscreen. I normally enjoy speculative drama's but this lost me about half way in, not because it's a noodle-scratcher but because it laboured on the grief and guilt of the main characters, rather than thoroughly exploring the possibilities of our doppelgangers from "Earth 2". I can't really fault director Cahill or the actors. They put in competent shifts but it's the unexplored script that's the problem. To start with such a hypothesis and then allow it to wallow and fritter out, is very discouraging. Granted, the budget isn't high and it rests on it's emotional and metaphysical core but it still falls into a very frustrating lull, from which it never recovers. It's one that would play well alongside the existential films of Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" or Terrence Malick's "The Tree Of Life" but it's nowhere near in the same league, despite it winning the Sundance Film Festival. Maybe on 'another earth', this film was a masterpiece. On ours though, it's frankly... dull.

• Matthew S

  
  This would have made a great short film. Implausible reality (I expected most of this), implausible characters, and implausible plot distract us from the core of the movie. Its saving grace is the few bits of meditation on our sense of self and the moments that shape our being. This… More
  This would have made a great short film. Implausible reality (I expected most of this), implausible characters, and implausible plot distract us from the core of the movie. Its saving grace is the few bits of meditation on our sense of self and the moments that shape our being. This second earth is a way for our main character to deal with her sense of guilt. If there exists a Rhoda2 who maybe didn't make the same fatal mistake, then Rhoda1 just happens to be the version of her who did. She drew the short straw.

• Sophie B

  
  Such an interesting and engaging story that never drops your attention. Whilst there are several plot holes and you need the ability to suspend your belief slightly, at the end you get such a huge reward and your brain will buzz with questions, wonder and awe. This is a world I would… More
  Such an interesting and engaging story that never drops your attention. Whilst there are several plot holes and you need the ability to suspend your belief slightly, at the end you get such a huge reward and your brain will buzz with questions, wonder and awe. This is a world I would like to live in. The only huge problem I have is that Rhoda seduces John. That made me really dislike the character, as although I understood her wanting to help him and make his life better, that was disgusting behaviour from her.

• Manu G

  
  Is there another you out there? Very good film! I enjoyed it alot and has a nice finesse seasoning style to it that keeps you intrigue the whole time. Excellent script and story. Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a high school student who has been recently accepted to MIT. She… More
  Is there another you out there? Very good film! I enjoyed it alot and has a nice finesse seasoning style to it that keeps you intrigue the whole time. Excellent script and story. Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is a high school student who has been recently accepted to MIT. She celebrates with friends and drives home intoxicated. Listening to a story about an approaching planet that looks just like Earth on the radio, she looks out her car window up to the stars and inadvertly slams her car through a stopped car at an intersection, putting John Burroughs (William Mapother) in a coma and killing his wife and son. Rhoda is a minor, so her identity is not revealed to John. After serving her prison sentence, Rhoda does not go to MIT, but becomes a janitor at a local school, wanting to physically clean things with her hands but not do too much thinking. After cleaning a school for a while and hearing more news stories about the approaching mirror Earth, Rhoda visits John's house after he has recovered, thinking she will apologize for the harm she did to him. He answers the door and she loses her nerve. Instead, she pretends to be a maid offering a free day of cleaning as a marketing tool for Maid'n Haven (a New Haven based maid service). John, who has nearly dropped out of his Yale music faculty position and is now living in a depressed and dirty stupor, agrees to Rhoda's offer. When she finishes, John, who still does not know she is the person who killed his wife and son, asks her to come back next week. Rhoda tells him someone will come, but it may not be her. Rhoda returns to clean and develops a caring relationship with John that eventually becomes more significant and romantic. They like each other and are intelligent and compatible conversationally. Rhoda genuinely wants to be of service to him. Rhoda enters an essay contest sponsored by a millionaire entrepreneur who is offering a civilian space flight to the approaching mirror Earth. Rhoda's essay is selected and she is chosen to be one of the first explorers to travel to the other Earth. Rhoda tells John she has won the space flight, but he asks her not to go. However, when she tells him that she was the one who killed his wife and son, he forces her out of his house. Rhoda hears in a telecast the citizens of the mirror Earth were identical to those on her Earth in every way until the moment they learned of the other's existence. From that point on, the identical people on the different Earths probably began to deviate in small ways, changing their actions. Rhoda hopes her identical self on the other Earth did not make the mistakes she made on the night of the accident. Rhoda returns to John and gives him the ticket to the other Earth, telling him enough information to give him a small hope that his wife and son might be alive on that planet. John accepts the gift and becomes one of the first civilian space travelers to the other Earth. Months later, Rhoda approaches her back door and sees her twin from the other Earth standing in front of her.

• Directors C

  
  Another Earth isn't typical science fiction but a film that was made to mean something. It's by no means as solid as it wants to be though because the first time director's great intentions to get his meaningful message across is unfortunately, most of what he focuses… More
  Another Earth isn't typical science fiction but a film that was made to mean something. It's by no means as solid as it wants to be though because the first time director's great intentions to get his meaningful message across is unfortunately, most of what he focuses on. He very much succeeds but it's quick change in tone, visual inconsistentcy and sometimes stale acting is sometimes a problem. I humbly wish it would have taken it's brilliant premise further than it did but it was very interesting and it enjoyably touched upon issues and was a pleasantly unique film to watch.

• Lewis C

  
  Interesting film, but I'm 100% sure that some people will dislike it intensely. Another Earth is a weird movie. But, I liked it. It didn't go completely off the rails into la-la land like a some art house movies tend to do, and it stayed on the right side of the line between… More
  Interesting film, but I'm 100% sure that some people will dislike it intensely. Another Earth is a weird movie. But, I liked it. It didn't go completely off the rails into la-la land like a some art house movies tend to do, and it stayed on the right side of the line between artsy and absurd.

• Richard C

  
  I loved this movie. I'm really surprised that this movie only got 63% liked. It was absolutely brilliant. Grade: A

• Sam B

  
  'Another Earth' has a fascinating sci-fi premise on the exterior, which upon viewing reveals a just-as-awe-inducing philosophical premise. And while it doesn't go very far into exploring the former, that philosophical probing makes this film a truly thought-provoking,… More
  'Another Earth' has a fascinating sci-fi premise on the exterior, which upon viewing reveals a just-as-awe-inducing philosophical premise. And while it doesn't go very far into exploring the former, that philosophical probing makes this film a truly thought-provoking, well-crafted look at regret, forgiveness, and facing the unknown.

• c0up  

  
  'Another Earth'. One woman's quest for redemption set against the grand "what-if" scenario of a parallel Earth. I've really grown to love this kind of "passive sci-fi", taking a back seat to a strong character drama between Brit Marling and… More
  'Another Earth'. One woman's quest for redemption set against the grand "what-if" scenario of a parallel Earth. I've really grown to love this kind of "passive sci-fi", taking a back seat to a strong character drama between Brit Marling and William Mapother, who both turn in solid performances. The last stanza, with the revelation of the "broken mirror" theory, propels the film even further, giving credence to the rewarding ending, and pushing the "what-if" scenario beyond the simple "what would you do if you met another you?".

• Everett J

  
  "Another Earth" is a sci-fi drama, light on the sci-fi and heavy on the drama. A woman named Rhoda(Brit Marling) is driving down the road when she hears on the radio that a new planet has been discovered and is visible in the sky. As she looks upward she crashes into… More
  "Another Earth" is a sci-fi drama, light on the sci-fi and heavy on the drama. A woman named Rhoda(Brit Marling) is driving down the road when she hears on the radio that a new planet has been discovered and is visible in the sky. As she looks upward she crashes into another vehicle, killing a woman and child and leaving a man in a coma. Four years later she exits prison and the world is completely enthralled by the sight of a second earth visible in the sky. The man(John,played by William Mapother) has awoke from his coma and is slipping further into an alcoholic depression because of his loss. Rhoda reaches out to him to apologize but loses her nerve and instead forges a relationship with him, as he has no clue to who she really is. In the backdrop of their relationship is this Earth 2 hoovering over everyone. Rhoda enters a contest to win a chance to visit the nearby planet in hopes of finding peace with herself. The image of a second earth in the sky(just as if u looked up at the moon) is both captivating and intriguing. The sci-fi aspects are minimal, plausible, and interesting as hell. This reminded me of an Indy movie that came out a few years ago called "Primer." Both are slow, the sci-fi is based in reality, but they are both very engaging. Director Mike Cahill has crafted a fantastic movie and shows great promise for future films. I also loved the ending. It leaves things open ended, but makes you want more, leaving you in shock and awe. For low budget entertainment this is top notch. Not really a movie for everyone, but definitely worth a watch if your open minded and want something different.

• Lorenzo v

  
  <i>"Could we even recognize ourselves, and if we did, would we know ourselves? What would we say to ourselves? What would we learn from ourselves? What would we really like to see if we could stand outside ourselves and look at us?"</i> On the night of the… More
  <i>"Could we even recognize ourselves, and if we did, would we know ourselves? What would we say to ourselves? What would we learn from ourselves? What would we really like to see if we could stand outside ourselves and look at us?"</i> On the night of the discovery of a duplicate planet in the solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. <center><font size=+2 face="Century Schoolbook"><b><u>REVIEW</u></b></font></center> The retrospective publications in 2009 about Rod Serling and Maureen Dowd's recent column about the continuing influence of the Twilight Zone TV series on modern filmmaking themes reminds me why I find Another Earth a quietly devastating film and a worthy candidate in the serious sci-fi canon. The conjunction of Earth 2, our doppelganger as close as the moon, has profound effect on the life of troubled teen, Rhoda (Brit Marling). After spending 4 years in prison for the automobile manslaughter of a family, with its dad, John (William Matopher), in a long coma and just recovering, Rhoda withdraws from the world, taking cleaning jobs that keep her from connection with her fellow human beings. But not totally, for she seeks out John and offers a service to clean his house regularly without his knowing her true identity. Where does Earth 2 fit into this dramatically rich context, you ask? Rhoda enters an essay contest to fly to the alternate earth, a metaphor, of course, for beginning life anew or at least living before her life-changing accident. Theory has it that Earth 2 is a mirror image of our earth, and on it live our duplicate selves, so if Rhoda can get there, maybe she can change the past for John. Regardless of the astronomic impossibilities, the second earth is a metaphor for our wish to change things. Mostly that change is not going to happen, try as we might to believe it can. What lasts is the Twilight Zone of ambiguity, those mystical worlds created by Serling to point out that things are not what they seem. This beautifully acted, measured drama is successful showing the lingering effects of events in all lives for a lifetime. Clear it is that no number of parallel worlds can efface the power and lifetime effect of the one we love on now.

• Aaron N

  
  Purdeep: Listen to me. Keep your mind clear and that's it. You will have peace of mind. My dear don't worry. Learn to adjust yourself. On the heels of watching Lars von Trier's Melancholia, I was able to see Another Earth. Apparently I am a sucker for existential… More
  Purdeep: Listen to me. Keep your mind clear and that's it. You will have peace of mind. My dear don't worry. Learn to adjust yourself. On the heels of watching Lars von Trier's Melancholia, I was able to see Another Earth. Apparently I am a sucker for existential sci-fi dramas that revolve around the dilemmas of the main characters as they deal with their own tragedies, along with the presence of another planet coming dangerously close to earth, because as with Melancholia, I really dug this film as well. While there is an intriguing subject in this film that involves the existence of a duplicate world and the chance to communicate with it, most of the sci-fi-ness, like Melancholia, is pushed into the background, as the film moves at a deliberate pace and deals with the drama surrounding the lead characters. As the first feature film from director Mike Cahill, I found Another Earth to be quite well acted and assuredly made; but the notion of thinking what my double would do, alone, managed to keep me involved with the film. read more at thecodeiszeek.com

• Crash E

  
  inspiring and touching plot, it has so many questions and none of them were answered.

• Liam G

  
  When I heard about ''Another Earth'', I thought that it could be this year's ''Moon'' or ''Monsters''. It looked like a real human story with an intriguing sci-fi twist to it. What the two films have that… More
  When I heard about ''Another Earth'', I thought that it could be this year's ''Moon'' or ''Monsters''. It looked like a real human story with an intriguing sci-fi twist to it. What the two films have that ''Another Earth'' does not includes strong acting, honest emotion, relatable characters and a gripping narrative. ''Another Earth'' proves dull, uninteresting and meanders a lot of the time. Brit Marling just isn't able to carry the film on her own and weak dialogue and characters unfortunately make ''Another Earth'' a rather mediocre indie film.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings