Moon Review

Published by Jeff Leins on: June 12th, 2009

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread. — Blaise Pascal

Since human beings began peering up at the sky and wondering what was out there, the solitude of space has weighed on man.  Scientists search the emptiness for new stars, galaxies, and planets, hoping for signs of life outside our own.  Generations die knowing the same single truth as the one before it:  we are alone here in the universe.  One living Earth.  One single moon.  One small step.  One giant leap.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey explored the timeline of humans building tools and reaching out to further frontiers.  Yet in the end it was just one man, alone with his technology still fighting for survival.  Duncan Jones’ directorial debut, Moon, could easily serve as the companion piece to Kubrick’s masterpiece, an intelligent expansion on the thematic material with such a simple, brilliant story.

In the performance of his career, Sam Rockwell plays astronaut Sam Bell assigned to the lunar base.  He is finishing his three-year assignment on the Moon where he has been tasked with delivering shipments of mined resources back to Earth as a source of renewable energy.  Other than a computer system with artificial intelligence named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), Bell is isolated from the rest of humanity, including his wife and young daughter.  Two weeks shy of his final departure, Bell starts to experience strange happenings.  What’s worse, he has to face them alone.

The screenplay by Nathan Parker cleverly plays against the audience’s preconceived notions of what to expect.  Is GERTY a sinister force of rogue technology like Kubrick’s HAL?  Spacey’s cold, calm voice seems to equally incite chills and laughs coupled with simple, cute emoticons.  Even Bell’s faithful sidekick is a mystery as he questions his sterile surroundings.  The head trip is what keeps this one man show interesting though, as the audience wraps their mind around the circumstances simultaneously with Bell.

Director Duncan Jones applies a gritty filter to an already low-budget appearance completely devoid of CGI.  Miniatures perform the duties of modern special effects, yet the differences are virtually unnoticeable within such an engrossing film.  This isn’t the lens-flared bridge of the new Enterprise; the small scale moon base is an entirely industrial and strictly utilitarian structure.  The machines are futuristic, but the work is nothing more than the traditional practice of farming.  Jones directs Rockwell as constantly frustrated by the company’s stubbornness to communicate as his character loses touch with humanity.  Bell becomes increasingly more disheartened at realizing he’s just another tool.

Once Moon’s plot twist is apparent the film loses a bit of its suspense and charm, but by then it has already given us plenty to ponder.  When we’re alone.

4 out of 5.