Another Earth (12A)

HHH

Dir: Mike Cahill

With: Brit Marling, William Mapother

IN Lars von Triers's Melancholia, a stray planet in the sky was a portent of doom. In Mike Cahill's science fiction drama, the other Earth of the title functions as a place where tired old humanity can start again. A bit like the south of France for expat Brits, but without the French.

Co-written with Cahill's lead actor, Brit Marling, Another Earth has a pleasantly hippy-dippy vibe and the kind of story that draws you gently into its embrace. Surprising, given that the tale starts from such an unpromising place.

As we see in flashback, Rhoda (Marling) was a young woman with a starry career ahead of her as an astrophysicist. When that turns out not to be the case, she must gather together the pieces of her life and go on as best she can.

The discovery of another Earth is heaven-sent for people like Rhoda. Cahill introduces the concept in a laid back way. There's some moon landing-style excitement, but none of the rioting in the streets and end of days madness a less chilled, more Hollywood, filmmaker might have imagined. Earth citizens are intrigued rather than terrified by the visitor in the skies, especially when it emerges they might see some familiar faces up there.

Cahill piles in the ideas and themes, from doppelgangers to how to rebuild a life when all seems lost. Though the story ends up in some hard to believe places, particularly once Rhoda meets a man from her past (William Mapother), curiosity as to how it will all turn out wins you over in the end.

Marling makes an appealing heroine, her indie chick vulnerability making the viewer care what happens to her. A strange charmer of a movie.