What would you give to start over and correct past mistakes? That’s the question posed to Rhoda (Brit Marling) early on in Another Earth, an underrated 2011 sci-fi movie. She was once a brilliant student with a bright future, but she caused a car accident that put a man, John (William Mapother), into a coma and killed his family. Years later, she masquerades as a maid to get close to him, and they begin an affair. He doesn’t know her real identity, and Rhoda is reluctant to tell him. But how can they both heal and move on without facing the reality of their shared past and the uncertainty of their future?
A possible solution lies in, you guessed it, another Earth that contains alternate versions of everyone on regular Earth. What if John’s family is still alive on that planet? If Rhoda helps him travel to that planet, will she finally forgive herself for the mistake she made all those years ago?
Another Earth is a throwback to those old sci-fi movies that ask big questions and don’t provide easy answers. It uses its sci-fi concept to probe the limitations of humanity, but also its greatest strengths, too.
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