If you enjoy brainy sci-fi, this Sundance winner has a haunting premise revolving around the appearance of a parallel world on which another version of you exists. After partying and drinking with friends, aspiring MIT astrophysicist Rhoda Williams's (Brit Marling) car careens into another vehicle, killing a mother and child. Spending four years in prison, Rhoda returns home and begins rebuilding her life, working as a high school janitor. Overwhelmed with guilt about the accident and trying to make amends, she becomes a house cleaner for the grief-stricken husband, John Burroughs (William Mapother), whose family she destroyed—without telling him who she is. Although intending to apologize, Rhoda loses her nerve, and an uneasy friendship develops between these damaged, lonely people. In the meantime, a mysterious phenomenon has occurred: a mirror-image sphere appears in the sky—another Earth, where scientists speculate everyone has a doppelganger. Gazing at it day after day, Rhoda views the new celestial body as some kind of redemptive second chance; so she enters a contest for a seat aboard a spacecraft being launched to investigate it. Filmed on a micro-budget, writer-director Mike Cahill's minimalist drama features riveting individual performances (particularly by co-writer Marling) and a stimulating and provocative concept. Recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (10 min.), the Fox Movie Channel-produced featurettes “Direct Effect with Mike Cahill” and “In Character” with costars Brit Marling and William Mapother (15 min. total), the behind-the-scenes featurettes “The Science Behind Another Earth” (3 min.) and “Creating Another Earth” (3 min.), the music video “The First Time I Saw Jupiter” by Fall On Your Sword, trailers, and bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a winning film.] (S. Granger)
Another Earth
Fox, 93 min., PG-13, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $39.99, Nov. 29 Volume 26, Issue 5
Another Earth
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