Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling) is 17 and gifted; a prodigy in astrophysics, she has just been accepted to MIT, and the world is her oyster. She celebrates this news, but even a genius can make stupid decisions. She drinks too much, she drives, she gets distracted, and she plows into another car, killing a mother and child, and leaving a father in a coma. The object of her distraction is a tiny blue point of light that has just appeared in the sky, which it turns out is another planet, with the exact size and proportions of earth. And it's moving closer. We jump ahead four years and see Rhoda getting out of prison. The world is no longer her oyster. The jubilant girl we saw at the beginning has been replaced by a quiet woman who keeps her hair in a loose braid on the side of her face and hides beneath baggy clothes, toboggans and hoodies. She gets a job as a janitor at the school she once went to. And she seeks out the father, composer John Burroughs (William Mapother), who has awoken from his coma. She goes to him, wants to apologize, but she is weak and afraid, and she lies to him, saying she's there with a maid service. Soon she's returning every week, wanting to confess but maintaining the lie. And soon something develops between them. And looming over everything, growing perpetually larger in the sky, that other planet, which is clearly, somehow, an exact copy of ours.
I hesitate to call this one sci-fi. The story, as written by star Marling and director Mike Cahill, ignores the devastating effect that would occur should a planet the size of our own close in on us. It is clearly stated that this other earth is truly there, a physical presence with mass that generates radio waves (and when viewed through a telescope, has clearly visible cities and technologies that mirror our own). This one is more concerned with its very human story, and with the implications and possibilities of this other globe. There are occasional voice overs from very intelligent sounding men pondering on it in psychological and philosophical terms, but very little in the way of hard science. I'd say for that reason this is more fantasy than sci-fi. It also is, of course, very concerned with the image of this other world hanging in the sky, and what a stunning image it is. I should note this is the kind of movie that lingers on hair blowing in the wind, and dust motes drifting in sunlight, but I wouldn't slander it by calling it an "art film." It is not dense or abstract, like, say, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain or Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. It is a very simple and straightforward story, that could honestly work without its fantastical element. But that element allows it to explore possibilities that a standard drama would not have. Those possibilities come to the fore in a scene where a SETI scientist attempts to make first contact with the other earth. This scene is one of my favorites in the movie; it is moving and surprising and chilling all at once.
Brit Marling seems to have come out of nowhere and landed on the scene with a performance that should have earned her an Oscar nomination. In another of my favorite scenes she recounts the story of the first Russian Cosmonaut, and the ticking sound that almost drove him insane. Doesn't sound like much, but the way she delivers it is stunning. Mapother is also very good; his John's life ended at the same time as his wife and son, and now he simply endures. He rots away along with his large, rambling house, drinking, reading, playing Wii, but not feeling, and not living. They are both powerful performances, but Marling has the edge (she should, she wrote the part for herself). I should also note the rave-infused score by Fall On Your Sword (whoever or whatever that is) that is alternately driving and lyrical, and features a sonata played on a saw. It is a perfect fit. Also of note is the cinematography, also by director Cahill (he edited too), which captures his concept with brilliant imagery.
It is a beautiful movie, that ponders on the paths our lives take and whether we can be redeemed for our mistakes. I should note it finishes with an epilogue that may leave viewers a little baffled (I was), but ultimately that just means there's something to discuss after. It's one last gift from a stunning and haunting film.
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