The news breaks that a planet has been found that is identical to Earth, a drunk driver looks up into the sky to see it and crashes head on into a family stopped in their car. While the world comes to terms with this planetary double, two people help pull each other out of themselves and find their place in life again.
The planet, that gets called ‘Earth Two’ in the film (so arrogant), is eerily similar to Earth. When they first make contact, the reporter ends up speaking to her double. Yes, on this planet are doubles of everyone on Earth, and they’ve had the same experiences. This inevitably leads to the question, “if you met yourself, what would you say?” In our lives, a lot of us hope to find someone who can understand who we are and why we are that way, so if you met your double then they would know. I don’t think I’d be able to say anything, it would just be too much of something you never really expect to find.
I’m not sure if I’ve watched too many films or I'm just
cynical but whenever I see a happy family I just know that shit is going to hit
the fan pretty sharpish. And lo, I was correct. Pregnant mother, father and
child are sitting in their car being all cute and laughing and you just know
that in 2 seconds they are going to be so dead. Rhoda (Brit Marling) drives straight into them, then she staggers from the car to see the damage. She
spots the dead woman, the unconscious man, and then she finds the child has
been thrown through the windshield into the road. And we get a shot of the dead
child in the road. Jesus. Rhoda herself was very happy earlier that night, she
had been celebrating her acceptance into MIT. All over now though.
The film then cuts to 4 years later when she is getting out
of prison. She is withdrawn and gets a job as a cleaner in a high school
because she doesn’t want to have to talk to many people. When she’s visiting
the crash site she sees the father, John (William Mapother), laying a toy next
to the road. He had been in a coma after the accident and now he spends his
time mainly being drunk and not leaving his house. Rhoda decides to go ‘round
and apologise but when she gets there she panics and instead tells him she is a
cleaner. She spends the next few weeks cleaning his house and the two end up
getting closer, and as a result both become happier and more like the versions of themselves they were before the tragedy. Then they have sex. Right, I so did not want that
to happen but inevitably, people can’t just enjoy being around each other. When
they’re lying together after, he tells her what happened to his family but she
doesn’t say anything. Some time later their relationship reaches a critical
point; she has won a place on a spaceship headed for the new planet and he
doesn’t want her to leave because he thinks they are close to something
special. So she says she’ll tell him a story and if he still doesn’t want her
to go after he’s heard it, then she’ll stay. She confesses and he kicks her out
of the house. When she gets home she hears on the TV someone discussing a
theory about the new planet. The doubles may be exactly like us but as soon as
we were made aware of the other’s existence the course of things was changed,
and the lives couldn’t run identically anymore. Rhoda sees in this a perfect
opportunity to perhaps give John back his family. She gives him her ticket for
the spaceship so that he can see if his wife and child are alive on Earth Two.
Such a wonderful thing to do, especially considering what an amazing opportunity that would be.
8/10
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