Released October 8, 2009
Old-School Oddity
Recent science-fiction films have preferenced thrills over ideas. Breaking that trend and harking back to classics such as Alien, Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odyssey, this one man show for Sam Rockwell is refreshingly willing to ponder the philosophical implications of its premise.
Trudging through the sterile corridors of a mining base on the moon, Sam Bell (Rockwell) has only the A.I. GERTY for company. Retro in design, GERTY is voiced by Kevin Spacey as a seemingly benign being with amusingly adorable smiley faces in place of emotion. Of course, you can never quite tell what he's really up to; HAL seemed friendly enough at the beginning too. Coming to the end of his three year term, Sam eagerly awaits being sent home to Earth to be reunited with his wife Tess and three-year old daughter, Eve.
With much of the facility and harvesters automated, Sam’s presence almost seems superfluous were it not for needed maintenance and repairs. He certainly feels that way. As he becomes more and more emotionally distant and disenchanted with his lowly place in the corporate hierarchy, Sam’s physical and emotional health begins to deteriorate.
What happens next is better left unexplained, and is less important than the establishment of the introspective mood. Suffice it to say there is an escalating feeling of unease and claustrophobia as Sam makes unexpected discoveries that may or may not stem from irrational paranoia.
Director Duncan Jones, partly by fiscal necessity and by choice employs a blend of cheaper traditional models and CGI with a deliberately retro aesthetic. More tangible than their CGI-only counterparts, he shows tremendous creativity in constructing what is an ambitious science-fiction film with a budget of only $5 million. With his next film a salivating-inducing dystopian noir set in a future Berlin, Moon is an inspired debut from an obvious talent.
