'Another Earth' review

Brit Marling and William Mapother (Credit: Fox Searchlight)

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Suddenly, out of nowhere, a duplicate Earth appears in the sky, hovering over the horizon like a deranged moon and taunting Earthlings with its mind-shattering mysteries. Scientists also make a shocking discovery: that this mirror planet contains exact replicas of each of us, living seemingly parallel realities. The revelation could be just the ticket out for Rhoda (Brit Marling), a tortured young woman looking for redemption after her drunken car crash destroyed the life of John (William Mapother), a total stranger.

The buzz: The movie made waves at Sundance this year with its lo-fi sci-fi hook. A lot of talk focused on Marling, whose self-possessed allure has prompted observers to peg her as the next ingenue to gallop out of the Sundance stable and make it big. She's got more than just a magazine-cover-friendly face, though: She also co-wrote this screenplay with director (and sometime boyfriend) Mike Cahill, who makes his feature-film debut.

The verdict: "Another Earth" kicks off with a truly catchy premise, and Cahill smartly uses it as a dramatic catalyst instead of an attention-sucking narrative centerpiece. As similar films like "Moon" and "Monsters" have proven, you don't need big budgets to make a compelling indie sci-fi movie that's less about frenzied special effects and more about the intimate psychological and emotional complexities of its characters. In this sense, "Another Earth" succeeds as a high-concept idea movie. Unfortunately, the execution doesn't live up to the ambition. Get past the sci-fi novelty and it's yet another morose indie where characters wallow in—and, thus, play up—their own moroseness. This is really no different from any other Sundance-approved redemptive ballad involving a tragedy, a search, a ray of light, and a wrenching trudge back to the universe's good graces. Rhoda tries to atone for her crime by passing herself off as a cleaning lady to an unsuspecting John. And as one scene leads to the next—the tedium rising with every brooding glance—the movie's once-captivating premise gets sucked out like a black hole, replaced with yet another agonized character study that suddenly seems more generic and infinitely less interesting. Marling winds up the most compelling part of the film, making you wonder if, instead of another Earth, she should have found another movie to showcase her promising thespian gifts.

Did you know? This isn't the first time Marling and Cahill have worked together on a movie. In 2004, they made a documentary called "Boxers and Ballerinas," which surveyed the connection between the U.S. and Cuba as filtered through four youths growing up as boxers and ballerinas in those countries.

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