Another Earth

A young girl, Rhoda, during a celebration of her acceptance to M.I.T. gets drunk and crashes into another car killing most of the family members in the other car.  This is not very interesting at first, however, this happens during the night when the world discovers another planet, and it is a replica of our planet, Earth.  After serving a four year sentence for her crime, the girl returns from prison a changed woman; from a young, hopeful girl to a broken, sad, woman.  At the same time, a company plans an expedition to Earth-2 and offers an open position on the shuttle in an essay contest.  Rhoda enters the contest, in the hope that maybe she can discover what her life would have been like without the crash.  She also decides to visit the lone survivor of the crash, a former professor, who had his life destroyed in the crash.

Another Earth is well made, its themes of redemption and overcoming loss are meant to strike a deep chord with the viewer.  However, I could not get into this movie.  It felt cold and distant.  Brit Marling's performance as Rhoda is slightly boring, her character never really gives us a chance to invest any interest in her character.  The story of redemption did not work well for me, it seemed rather implausible.  It is easy to tell that this movie is lovingly made and personal to its writer/star, and I can also see how other people may like this movie, however, this movie didn't work for me.

** Stars