Strap yourselves in for this sci-flick, because this ain't your momma's Tom Hanks space film. Moon is nothing short of incredibly thought provoking. The plot is fairly simple: Astronaut Sam Bell, played by actor Sam Rockwell(The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), is finishing up his three year contract on the moon for the energy company, Lunar Industries. His job is to oversee the harvesting of Helium-3 from the surface of the moon, collect it, and send it back to Earth for mass usage. Now if you've seen the trailer, you already are at least partially aware of this, but with only a couple weeks left, Sam begins to have bizarre hallucinations. After three years of smooth sailing in his figurative shuttle, the proverbial thrusters come off. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (puns used to be the highest form of comedy -- Danny) to figure out what happens next.
Before I go and start revealing too much, lets jump straight to the acting. For all intents and purposes, this movie has just two actors. We'll start with Sam Rockwell. Now for full disclosure, this is only the second movie I've seen him in, but I think it would be very fair to say that he is a highly underrated actor. Throughout the course of this movie Rockwell is essentially alone on a remote moon-station. His only real-time companion is a robot named GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey. Not to diminish Spacey's efforts here, which were actually quite good, but this movie is essentially a one man show. Such a device might turn many casual movie goers away, but they would be missing out on a great performance. He is real, he is relatable. Hell, you might even shed a tear for him after a certain phone call he places late in the movie. Spacey's voice acting may evoke a slightly less emotional response from viewers. He does a fantastic job of making every line void of human emotion(shockingly reminiscent of his performance in Se7en). However, he still managed to take a moving robot with little more than a changing yellow smiley face and turn it into a memorable character.
Moving behind the scenes, one will find that this movie was directed by Duncan Jones. What? Never heard of him? Maybe it's because this is his first film. No, you've had to have heard of him before. Maybe this will refresh your memory. Zowie Bowie; aka Son of Bowie. Yes, that Bowie. David Bowie. Yeah his son is an emerging director that goes by Duncan Jones. So maybe this low budget film director isn't such an underdog after all coming from that gene pool. Does that make his story any less gripping? No. Jones deserves every bit of praise and applause for this film that gets sent his way. Working with only about 5 million dollars, Jones managed to punch out this memorable sci-fi flick in a mere 33 days. Now it must be said that if one pays close enough attention, there are some rather obvious influences to his story. I've heard 2001: A Space Odyssey is one big one, but since I've never seen it, I can't actually agree. However, I will say that I caught some obvious Blade Runner influences throughout, though I won't explicitly mention them. Does this borrowing of themes and such diminish the quality of the film? Hardly. Keep in mind that this is a Sci-Fi film. Rarely, and I mean RARELY, is anything in the realm of Sci-Fi truly and fully outside the influence of any of its predecessors. Moon nevertheless remains enjoyable despite its influences, and that's what makes it an excellent movie.
Before I get into exactly what I enjoyed so much about this movie, I feel like I must state that there will be some massive spoilers in this paragraph. If you haven't seen the film, skip this one. Now, as this is essentially my first review, it strikes me as relevant to tell you exactly what I look for in a movie. First and foremost, movies are obviously meant to entertain an audience. If it doesn't do that in one fashion or another, then it has failed. Secondly, I'm enthralled by movies that make me think, preferably about questions of human nature, emotions, life and death. That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good comedy as much as the next guy, but I would more prefer to leave a movie theatre feeling something profound. Moon did that for me, and I suppose that's why I liked it so much. The movie raises some seriously pertinent questions. As it states in the beginning, Helium-3 is used on Earth for over 70% of the planet's clean burning resources. Finding environmentally friendly energy sources is an important task for scientists today, but Moon begs the question, "At what cost?" As one will find out from watching the movie, Lunar Industries cloned the original Sam Bell, and has used clone after clone, 3 year life span after 3 year lifespan to keep their Helium-3 harvesting profitable and labor effective. This saves them probably billions of dollars in astronaut training and shuttle costs. The company's manipulation of these clones is very simple, yet quite brilliant. They implant memories and periodically send them messages from Bell's wife and the company HQ. The clones experience Sam Bell's original three year stint over and over again. Moon handles the somewhat cliched clone issue in a relatively different manner than some other sci-fi films. The audience isn't really aware that Bell is a clone until almost midway through the movie. Therefore, the audience is sold on the idea that Bell is first and foremost a human. For me, even after the reveal, I found it hard to even think of Bell (either one of them) as clones. Both were individuals, and fully human in every way. One might say, to evoke the classic Blade Runner quote, that Bell is more 'human than human'. He seems to understand what it is to live, to love, to yearn for home and the company of others more than anyone; especially more than the company for which he is employed. That's what really got my mind thinking about this movie. Duncan said in an interview that he wrote this movie as a kind of tribute to the sci-fi movies of the late 70s, where the characters were first and foremost human beings in an alien world. I believe he accomplished that feat in his one man movie about what it's like to be used, to find out that your life didn't actually happen, or to find out that you may not be as unique as you thought. It's universally and classically unsettling to think that we would destroy the very thing that makes us human in the name of science, however noble the end goal might be.
I have to mention that the music for this film was absolutely moving. It was done by Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream). Essentially, the same notes play throughout the various scenes, with the melodies varying slightly. It really does a fantastic job setting the mood and tone for this film. Its simple, yet gripping, music that will almost certainly have you humming it on your way out of the theatre.
Overall, Moon is a fantastic little movie that is well worth the admission fee. It's entertaining and gets your mind working in ways that other summer movies, like Transformers, simply will not. If this film is any indication of Duncan's future work, keep an eye out for him. Until then though, go see this movie. You might just leave and never look at the moon the same way again.
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