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I finally got around to watching Another Earth. While I did enjoy the movie, it was for completely different reasons than I thought that I'd like it. I'm not sure I can remember ever having this degree of a mismatch between my expectations going in, and what the actual movie turned out to be. It turned out to be a (largely) pleasant surprise and even though I thought there were more interesting things that they could have done with the premise, I have to give a movie that completely surprises me a ton of credit. I knew almost nothing about it aside from a vague memory of seeing a trailer back when it was released and the fact that it had gotten good reviews (which I hadn't read). The acting, cinematography, and technical film making aspects of this movie were fine but not particularly memorable. Based on the premise of "another earth" appearing in the sky near our regular old Earth, I was expecting a sci-fi movie exploring the similarities and differences between the two largely identical worlds and the fact that they're presumably populated with identical versions of each person on Earth. I thought we'd be seeing the impact that the sudden appearance of another Earth would have on the individual and on society. With such a rich premise it seems like there would be all kinds of opportunities to look at the ramifications in the social, political, economic, and religious spheres of life. I was thinking that the film would explore some of the dangers as well as the opportunities such a scenario would pose, and I was almost certain that before it was over we'd be seeing interactions between the identical versions of the same people from our earth and from the other earth. Would our earth's various governments find natural allies in their counterparts from the other earth, or would they see each other as rivals or even enemies? If you met an identical copy of yourself, would the two of you become best friends or mortal enemies? If the latter, how would you fight or compete against someone who knows all of the same things and would react to every situation in the exact same way? If both copies of a person experience the same events, would they automatically react in exactly the same way? What does this say about the old debate over whether free will and human consciousness truly exist or if they're mere illusions and the mind is simply a machine responding in a deterministic way to a given set of inputs from our senses? What would it be like to go to the funeral of the other you? It it cheating on your spouse if you sleep with the other earth's version of your spouse? What if you wanted to marry 'yourself' from the other earth? If the other version of you murders someone, should you be treated as a murderer as well since you presumably have the inclination to kill? Aside from being fertile ground for all kinds of ethical dilemmas and social commentary, I was expecting a lot of CGI of people doing stuff in space, travel between the worlds, etc. Until about 3/4 of the way through the movie I kept thinking, "Ok, I bet we're finally going to get to the other earth any minute now..." before I realized that it just isn't that kind of movie, and ultimately we don't even see any contact between the two earths. I was a bit disappointed that instead of any of the stuff above, this movie actually turned out to be a drama about a young woman who accidentally kills a man's wife and child in a drunk driving accident, the impact it had on her life and the life of the man who lost his family in the accident. Rather than getting a science fiction film filled with space travel, the exploration of another world, and the impact the existence of another earth would have on every sphere of human activity, we get a story that is much smaller in scope and very much focused on the interaction between the two main characters. To some degree the movie's marketing, title, and premise are misleading but honestly without that stuff I would not have been interested in seeing the movie. If they straight up promoted this as a very personal dramatic story about two people struggling to move on from tragedy and the relationship between them I probably would have written it off as a "chick flick" with a plot that doesn't intrigue me and I would have missed out on seeing a good movie. They could have made essentially the exact same movie and replaced the tickets for being among the first travelers to the other earth with any object of value that's in limited supply, is potentially life changing, and that both main characters find desirable. It could have been an experimental vaccine for a disease, a map to pirate treasure, a winning lottery ticket, a sample of unobtainium, or simply a briefcase that we never get to see the contents of but clearly it's something awesome based on how everyone who looks inside widens their eyes with excitement and anticipation. Whether you view this as a strength or a weakness of the movie, and whether you feel cheated or pleasantly surprised by what could be considered misdirection on the part of the film's marketing might depend on how open minded you are toward different genres and themes. After watching the movie I went back and watched the trailer again, and to be fair it really doesn't even mislead the viewer as to the nature of the movie, it just doesn't say a whole lot about it and as a science fiction fan I picked up that ball and ran with it, filling in the blanks based on the title and the shots of another earth in the sky. I'd recommend seeing the movie for sure, but do go into it with an open mind. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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Jan 20, 2016 09:07
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 07:49 |
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