by Kendall Newton
Contributing writer
The image of a girl standing on a rocky ledge, overlooking a lake, staring up into the vast sky at the blue and swirling whites of another Earth, just like ours, was what first intrigued me about the film “Another Earth.”
It’s a movie some consider science fiction. However, the inherent impossibility of an exact replica of our planet being produced on the other side of the Sun isn’t a concept the film even tries to argue for, because that’s not what it’s about.
This movie is about a girl named Rhoda, played by Brit Marling, with nothing but promise ahead of her when a stupid mistake ruins her life. In a reckless night of drunk driving, she crashes and kills a mother and her child, injuring the father played by William Mapother.
The story starts with Rhoda getting out of jail and trying to shoulder her punishing guilt, attempting to find within her the ability to forgive herself. Her self-punishment and shame fall against a backdrop of a world redefining itself. Another planet Earth, an exact replica in every way, is now showing itself. People are faced with the realization that there is another you out there.
Every human being on the planet is asking themselves several questions, as the movie describes, “What would we say to ourselves? What would we learn from ourselves? What would we really like to see if we could stand outside ourselves and look at us?” It’s mind-boggling.
But not only is the movie itself mind-boggling, its conception is as well. According to imdb.com, actress Brit Marling not only stars in this film; she also wrote it. After completing a degree in economics at Georgetown University, Marling shelved it and went to Hollywood to pursue acting.
After being offered only cliché roles as the pretty blonde in horror films, she decided that she would write a screenplay for herself. This poignant and truly affecting movie is the result. Even more astounding is that it is her first foray into major motion pictures as both actress and writer.
As a college student, I find her story not only inspirational, but motivating. It’s a reminder that your degree isn’t a life-sentence, but rather an option.