Another Earth (2011)

Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

Director: Mike Cahill
Writers: Mike Cahill, Brit Marling
Starring: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava

"What would you do if you had a double somewhere in the universe?"

While driving home from a party and listening on the radio to news about the recently discovered planet in the sky they call Earth2, Rhoda Williams, a young woman who's just been accepted to the astrophysics program at MIT, causes a dramatic car accident, killing a mother and child and sending the father into a coma. After being released from prison a few years later, she slowly establishes relationship with the still-grieving father. In the meantime, the other Earth grows bigger and becomes more visible.

Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Another Earth is the first film written, directed, produced, photographed and edited by Mike Cahill (also see I Origins) and is co-written by Brit Marling, the protagonist of the film.

Plot summary from IMDb: Seventeen year-old Rhoda Williams receives an acceptance letter from MIT and she celebrates with her friends. On the same night, a planet similar and close to Earth is discovered and called Earth 2. Rhoda drives her car looking at Earth 2 and crashes with composer John Burroughs, killing his pregnant wife and his baby son. Rhoda goes to prison and four years later she is released and moves to her parents' house. She finds a job as high-school janitor, but tries to commit suicide. She survives, however, and submits an essay to a contest where the prize is a ticket to travel to Earth 2. Meanwhile the scientists discover that Earth 2 is a mirror of Earth and the synchronicity between the dwellers was interrupted when the planets were seen by each other. One day, Rhoda decides to visit John Burroughs, whose life was destroyed after the death of his family, to admit to him that she had killed his family. However she does not have the nerve to tell him the truth. So she lies and tells him he has won a free cleaning service of his home. Rhoda wins the writing contest, but meanwhile John and she have fallen in love with each other. Rhoda has to take a decision whether she goes or stays, but she wants to tell John the truth first.

Awards: 7 wins & 13 nominations.
Runtime: 92 min
PG-13