ANOTHER EARTH (Cahill, 2011) - This one builds slow, but packs a punch. Brit Marling is a discovery, showing the gradual thawing of someone who doesn’t quite believe she deserves happiness. I also liked how lightly the science-fictional conceit is handled - not too much sciency mumbo jumbo*, just exploration of an intriguing idea. It takes a fantastical idea and looks at the very small-scale implications, involving realistic emotions and reactions, which is exactly what the best science-fiction does. I don’t think the exploration is quite deep enough, but it is thought-provoking and affecting.
*because when you get into that (slight SPOILERS follow), you also have to explain how the gravity from this - apparently quite close - other earth doesn’t have a devastating influence on the tides etc. I could harp on how simply looking at a mirror doesn’t actually disrupt symmetry, but it’s actually an elegant way of explaining why the symmetry has to be (close to) perfect until recently: for two identical people to exist in the now, endless things need to have gone right, all forefathers reaching reproductive age, specific semen being produced and meeting specific egg cells etc.
