Coming soon!
Cast:
Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell
Kevin Spacey as Robot
Matt Berry as Overmeyers
Robin Chalk as Sam
Dominique McElligott as Tess Bell
Kaya Scodelario as Eve Bell
Malcolm Stewart as The Technician
Directed by Duncan Jones
Review:
If for some crazy reason, you’re not a fan of actor Sam Rockwell, then you might want to stay away from Duncan Jones’ directorial debut, because you’re going to be seeing a whole lot of him over the course of its 97 minutes. Aside from a few fairly unimportant side characters and the voice of Kevin Spacey, this is essentially Rockwell’s one-man show, and Rockwell proves himself more than capable of showing off all of his varying moods, sometimes at the same time. In some ways, that’s probably all you should know if you already plan on seeing the movie, since one of the film’s main plot points would probably be more effective if you didn’t know it was coming. On the other hand, not discussing it would be doing a disservice to one of the coolest aspects of the movie, so we’ll offer a very slight SPOILER WARNING! (One has to assume this plot device will eventually be made a part of the trailers once the film is picked up for distribution.)
The general premise revolves around a company called Lunar Industries mining the moon for Helium-3 to provide energy back on earth, something we learn in the authentic-looking advertisement that opens the film. Rockwell is Sam Bell, the sole remaining worker on the mining station Sarang, having signed a three-year contract that’s almost at an end. His sole companion is a sentient computer named Gerty – that’s where Kevin Spacey’s voice comes in. As we meet Bell, he’s started to lose his mind and ready to go home to earth, his wife Tess and their three-year-old daughter Eve, before an accident with one of the company’s harvesters sidelines those plans.
The film’s influences are fairly evident from the stark lunar landscape harking back to “Alien” and Spacey’s blatant HAL impression, though any assumption that Gerty will turn against Sam like his “2001: A Space Odyssey” predecessor proves to be unfounded. Instead, Gerty ends up being used humorously as Sam’s companion and a foil for him to bounce his plans on, the computer’s only expression of emotion being an ever-changing emoticon monitor, which offers plenty of giggles.
Then there’s the plot device mentioned above (last warning!): It involves Rockwell finding an exact doppelganger of himself, introducing a cloning element to the story, but the big question is which man is real and which is the clone. It’s a pretty big reveal, but there are enough twists that follow so that you never feel as if the movie is merely retreading “Multiplicity.”
Rockwell is such a solid actor that he could pull off talking to a disembodied voice (or himself) for an entire movie, and it works. “Moon” is quite a showcase for his talents and his range as an actor, as his character(s) are put through a variety of situations and over the course of the movie, he almost literally starts falling apart.
Despite being a sci-fi based thriller in the vein of the movies referenced above, “Moon” is exceedingly slow at times, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it’s essentially a character development piece. On the other hand, the movie just looks absolutely fantastic, Jones’ team having created fantastic sets and effectively used CG to create the lunar environment. It looks so good, you’ll probably wonder how much money went into the making of the movie. Certainly, it couldn’t have cost much, but the recreation of the moon’s surface, the mining stations and even the mining process are all very impressive. Wisely, Jones also hired composer Clint Mansell, Darren Aronofsky’s regular guy, to construct a chilling ambient score to accompany Sam’s descent into madness.
There are some problems with the overall storytelling when it comes to the cloning element with far too many questions left unanswered in a satisfying manner. For the most part, the amazing visuals and sound design help set a tone that makes the movie so riveting, although its ability to let Rockwell shine with such a brilliant and rounded performance will probably be appreciated more.
