Returning from Los Angeles to Chennai by Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, I spend my time on the long flight of 14 hours by watching a few movies. The first one was Another Earth (2011). When I pressed play on the Inflight entertainment device, I was expecting a sci-fi movie, but it turned out to be a Drama, nevertheless, it was okay to watch.
Another Earth is directed by Mike Cahill, starring Brit Marling who has shouldered the heavy character well which involves being a young reckless girl, a juvenile prisoner & guilt-ridden woman. The movie is about how a bright young MIT girl (Rhoda) of 17 years of age being drunk causes a road accident and kills a young mother and her boy. Rhoda serves her prison term, on release, she is occupied by her guilt and takes to be a Janitor in a local school. While all this drama is unfolding in the background is the discovery of Another Earth-like planet. Like Moon in our skyline, the new planet could be seen with the naked eye in our sky. Soon scientists speculate that people on the other Earth may be the same as those of us here, kind of like Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Rhoda meanwhile finds her Victim’s husband (John) and develops a relationship that becomes romantic, I felt this was a movie cliché and it could have been avoided.
The movie ends with how Rhoda handles her guilt and does she reconcile with the victim’s husband. In the last scene, we see Rhoda encountering her twin from Earth 2 and we are left to interpret it ourselves. The Wikipedia page for the film has listed the possible interpretations confirming my guesses.