Moon: Movie Review

Moon: Movie Review

Rating: 8/10
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey and erm, Sam Rockwell
Director: Duncan Jones

These are good times for sci fi.
After the stunning District 9 and with James Cameron's Avatar  on the horizon, Moon is the latest brilliant addition to the intelligent sci-fi genre.
Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, an employee contracted for three years by a mining company to work on the surface of the moon to help extract helium-3 which is to be used on earth as a power source.
As the end of his stretch nears, Bell suffers an accident on the lunar surface and wakes up back inside the base, convinced he is not alone...
There's much to love about Moon - from the retro stylings of the moonbase (its sheer whites recall 2001: A Space Odyssey - as does Kevin Spacey's voicing of the robot GERTY, whose monotone talk and displays emoticons on its screen are reminiscent of HAL) -to the wonderful performance of Sam Rockwell as a disaffected Bell.
But in terms of themes, Moon is more than just scifi.
It has universal themes such as isolation, what it is to be human and how we need other people to survive - the initial opening is all about the character study and how one survives alone and millions of miles away from others before it changes into something even smarter and more existential.
Rockwell continues to grow his portfolio as one of the best actors around - his multiple character emotions are brought excellently to the fore by director Jones. It's his performance which literally pivots the film - and which is so compelling, you can't take your eyes off the screen for one moment.
It's difficult to discuss too much about Moon without giving away its major plot points - and if I did that, I'd be depriving you of the pleasure I felt as the story unspooled in front of me on the big screen.
For a film which was made for $12 million NZ, this is leagues ahead of anything; in terms of look and feel, it really does capture the essence of life on another planet - and how dull it could be at times; it also uses the less is more approach as we follow Bell and gives you meaty ideas to mull over hours after you've left the cinema.
To simply define Moon as sci fi is to do it a disservice - to consider it more as a study of the human condition and of the big questions in life is more appropriate.

If you like intelligent films and ones which leave slivers of themselves inside your brain for days after you've seen them, Moon is the perfect film for you - it's intelligent, caring and human - and it's not often you get to say that about sci-fi these days.