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Brit Marling, William Mapother, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, D.J. Flava, Jordan Baker ... see more see more... , Robin Lord Taylor , Meggan Lennon , Flint Beverage , A.J. Diana , Bruce Colbert , Paul S. Mezey , Ana Valle , Jeffrey Goldenberg , Joseph Bove , Bruce Winant , Natalie Carter , Richard Berendzen , Shannon Maliff , Stéphane Leblanc , Jasmine Andrade , Kara Tweedie , Kumar Pallana , Ana Cruz Kayne , Yuval Segal , Diana Ciesla , Robert Phillips , Hollyce Phillips , Luis Vega , Richard Habersham , Jennifer Jaramillo , Ari Gold , Steve Giammaria , Rebecca Price

Rhoda Williams, a bright young woman accepted into MIT's astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs, has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and ... read more read more...is about to have a second child with his loving wife. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined. Estranged from the world and the selves they once knew, the two outsiders begin an unlikely love affair and reawaken to life. But when one is presented with the chance of a lifetime opportunity to travel to the other Earth and embrace an alternative reality, which new life will they choose? -- (C) Fox Searchlight

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68% liked it

13,923 ratings

Critics

64% liked it

119 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Mike Cahill

Release Date: July 22, 2011

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DVD Release Date: November 29, 2011

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Stats: 1,385 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,385)

  • SirPant
    May 16, 2012
    SirPant
    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 ambit... read moreions 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.
  • MrMarakai
    February 17, 2012
    MrMarakai
    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 s... read moreimilar 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.
  • fb1672039553
    February 16, 2012
    fb1672039553
    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. T... read morehis 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.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    February 14, 2012
    StarCrossedVoyager
    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 w... read moreould 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.
  • xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    January 28, 2012
    xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    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 c... read moreelebrates 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.
  • aquateen2
    January 24, 2012
    aquateen2
    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... read more 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.
  • lewiskendell
    January 22, 2012
    lewiskendell
    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 arts... read morey and absurd.
  • bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb1
    January 4, 2012
    bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb1
    I loved this movie. I'm really surprised that this movie only got 63% liked. It was absolutely brilliant.

    Grade: A
  • fb791220692
    January 2, 2012
    fb791220692
    '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-crafte... read mored look at regret, forgiveness, and facing the unknown.
  • c0up
    January 1, 2012
    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 William Mapother, who both turn in s... read moreolid 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?".

View All Another Earth Reviews

Critic Reviews

Tom Long
August 12, 2011
Tom Long, Detroit News

The result is an alluring image -- Earth above Earth -- a wrenching story and a wonder-tinged film. Full Review

Amy Biancolli
August 12, 2011
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

In emphasizing poetry over plot, mood over mechanics, Another Earth fails to answer the most pressing question of all: Umm, why haven't the tides been affected? Full Review

Roger Moore
August 8, 2011
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

The wildly improbable set-up is merely the jumping off point for an exploration of grief, guilt and redemption that plays out almost entirely between two people thrown together by circumstance. Full Review

Anthony Lane
August 8, 2011
Anthony Lane, New Yorker

Anyone who can explain the final shot deserves a refund. Full Review

Chris Vognar
August 4, 2011
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News

A stripped-down sci-fi indie that made waves at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Full Review

Colin Covert
August 4, 2011
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Cahill fails to give the preposterous story even an aura of plausibility, and the unforgivable subplot involving a dotty/enlightened old Indian school custodian is gallingly sentimental. Full Review

Kerry Lengel
August 4, 2011
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic

Instead of a fleet of Evil Kirks descending on us in souped-up space shuttles, we get a quietly moving parable of redemption. Full Review

Dave McGinn
July 29, 2011
Dave McGinn, Globe and Mail

The metaphysics function as a metaphor in what's an affecting -- if slow-moving -- drama about having to live with the choices we make and our need to find redemption. Full Review

Peter Howell
July 29, 2011
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

It's one of the year's best indie releases. Full Review

Michael O'Sullivan
July 29, 2011
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

There are a number of astronomical impossibilities here. What about gravity? What's orbiting what? And where exactly did it come from? Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Facts

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    • Rhoda Williams: I don't want to eat the apple of cynicism.
    • John Burroughs: What would you say if you met another you?
    • Rhoda Williams: Better luck next time.
    • Rhoda Williams: I don't really want to be around too many people, or do too much talking.
    • Rhoda Williams: Do you remember that essay contest I told you about... travel to Earth 2? I won.
Submit a Fact | View All

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Another Earth Trivia

  • Richard Matheson wrote What Dreams may Come, that starred Robin Williams and wrote another that became The Omega Man with Charelton Heston but before that Vincent Price was in The Last Man on Earth. What was the story's name?  Answer »
  • At one time, I was a french bohemian revolutionist. Another time, I played the Prince of Cats out for revenge in fair Verona. I wore green and battled Goombas with my brother and also roamed the ancient earth with my mammoth and sabretooth tiger buddies. Who am I?  Answer »
  • In the Southpark Movie, Satan sings about longing to be on earth. This is a spoof on another song from another movie, what is that movie?  Answer »
  • 'That's no moon that's a space-station! This line most famouly quoted in, 'Star Wars' was also quoted in another film, more closer to Earth. What is that film?  Answer »
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