Story and Directed by Duncan Jones
Screenplay by Nathan Parker
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. In the future an astro-man is off in space, pretty much alone in the space station save his talking computer that controls everything around him. Things start to get scary and mysterious, and it seems there is more to meets the eye about the computer/space station than we think. Duncan Jones’ Moon has all this, but with a fresh twist that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the 90-odd minute running time. Just when you think you’ve got the film’s twists and surprises figured out in the first act, it goes off on a path that exceeds your expectations and treats the audience with intelligence.
Sam Rockwell stars in a tour de force one-man performance as Sam Bell, the only person on a moon base. His job is harvesting energy off rocks on the far side of the moon’s surface in a future where such farming has cured Earth’s energy crises. Mostly it is an innocuous job where he monitors the machinery, makes occasional trips out to the rovers and otherwise passes time exercising or carving a model of his home town. He is two weeks from finishing his three year stint on the station, and is eagerly waiting to return to his wife and young daughter. His companion is the robot Gerty, cooly voiced by Kevin Spacey.
Gerty the robot turns out to be less of a HAL from 2001 and more an expansion of what computers are meant to be- extensions of our own wants and needs. The smiley faces used on his display to show his “thoughts” are a great touch and by far the best is just watching the way the “nervous “ face is used to show his own struggle. His moral conundrum comes across almost as conflicted as Sam Bell’s, but being a computer, he ultimately must follow his programming for better or worse. It’s sad to say this is best performance I’ve seen (heard) from Spacey in years. His matter of fact delivery harkens back to ‘Se7en’, where once again he knew more than was willing to let on to our protagonist.
When things turn sour, and injuries are incurred, the film begins the drive into madness only hinted at in the trailer. The best part of it all for me was that once the twist comes, life on the station continues in a matter of fact way that an amped up Hollywood version of the film could never do. Imagine if after Sigourney Weaver blasts the Alien out the airlock in ‘Alien’, we followed her life as she just deals with the idea that “there was some messed up stuff that just happened to me” and she tries to figure out definitively where that Alien came from. ‘Moon’ never becomes mundane as it sets off on this path; it just switches gears into mystery mode.
It is from this point forward that Sam Rockwell’s performance goes from good to great. Each moment is played with tact and understanding of how to play Sam Bell at that moment. Although the Academy Awards are always based on hype more than performance, I have to say this is the best lead performance I’ve seen by an actor all year and I can only hope that come award season, there is some recognition given here. Rockwell is supported greatly by solid costume, hair and makeup departments that reflect the aspects shown of Sam Bell, especially as the film progresses.
In the end we are left with a semblance of hope and the open ended possibility of a sequel. Usually I would shun such sequel-bait, but with this concept the existence of a sequel could only serve to sweeten this film. It would take the universe in such a different but fascinating direction that I welcome it openly. I eagerly look forward to the next film from freshman filmmaker Duncan Jones, who is breathing new life into an often stale sci-fi genre.
**** Four Stars – Definitely see this film.
‘Moon’ is on home video in U.K. right now and arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in the States on January 12th, 2010.
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