Review: MOON (2009)

Moon (2009)

Starring Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Sam Rockwell, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw, Kaya Scodelario, Sam Rockwell, Benedict Wong and Matt Berry

Written and Directed by Duncan Jones

Music by Clint Mansell

If there’s one movie from 2009 that I regret missing during its theatrical run, that movie would have to be G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra, because director Stephen Sommers clearly subscribes to the Michael Bay school of filmmaking: lots of things moving very quickly (often in slow motion, which may or may not be ironic) and oh, the explosions. G.I. JOE is just the sort of spectacle movie theaters—with their digitally-projected images on forty-foot screens and their booming surround sound—are designed for.

Moon, on the other hand, is a quiet movie. Sure, there’s a robot (GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey), and there are giant, futuristic machines; there’s even a moon base with artificial gravity and lots of sexy control panels. But nothing—absolutely nothing—explodes. A lunar rover crashes, yes. But it doesn’t explode. There is a fight that results in a character bleeding, to be sure. But neither character involved in the fracas is a mute ninja (or any other kind of ninja, for that matter) and not once does the action slip into slo-mo to emphasize how incredibly awesome that fight is. Oh, and the giant, futuristic machines don’t turn into robots, nor is the robot (which remains a robot at all times) an unstoppable killing machine.

[This gets a bit spoilery.]

What Moon has instead of explosions and ninja fights is Sam Rockwell, who is an acting ninja. Rockwell’s character, Sam Bell, is nearing the end of a three-year contract with Lunar Industries, a company that harvests Helium-3—a vital energy source—from the moon’s surface and packs it up in canisters which are then shipped to Earth. Sam has spent two weeks shy of three years alone on the far side of the moon, tending the Helium-3 harvesters—giant, roving machines mildly reminiscent of the spice harvesters in Dune. Sam’s only companion in the moon base is a robot named GERTY and, due to a malfunctioning satellite, live communication with Earth has been impossible for nearly the entire length of his contract; the only way he can communicate with other human beings is through recorded messages that are bounced off a relay satellite orbiting Jupiter. With only two weeks remaining in his contract, Sam is eager to return to Earth, his wife, and a daughter he has never met.

Unfortunately, Sam is going a bit stir crazy. He has begun to see things that aren’t there, and it’s becoming a bit of a distraction; so much so that he crashes his lunar rover into the back of a Helium-3 harvester. Injured and trapped, the last thing Sam sees is the lunar regolith kicked up by the harvester covering the rover’s cracked viewport.

Sam awakens in the moon base’s infirmary with no recollection of the crash. GERTY informs him that there was a minor incident with one of the harvesters, and in a recorded message Sam’s superiors at Lunar Industries order him to remain in the base to recover; a rescue team is en route to handle the stalled harvester. Restless, Sam convinces GERTY to let him out of the base to check the outer shell for meteorite damage, then hops in another rover and drives out to the scene of the accident.

As expected, Sam finds the crashed rover and the stalled harvester. He also finds himself, injured but still alive, trapped inside the rover. That’s when things get interesting.

In all honesty, I really do wish that I’d seen Moon on the big screen. It doesn’t have the flash and bang that makes me forget I’m in an auditorium surrounded by chatty people with cell phones, but there’s a visual depth that my poor, old 27″ RCA television doesn’t quite manage to bring across. Watching Moon a second time on my PC (with commentary by director Duncan Jones and producer Stuart Fenegan—totally worth watching, by the way) I noticed a lot of little details that I missed on my first viewing.

It’s entirely possible, though, that some of the little visual details were overlooked because I was watching Sam Rockwell, who delivers an excellent performance, which then turns into two excellent performances after Sam Bell quite literally finds himself. Rockwell is utterly convincing in his portrayal of two men who are identical—apart from the fact that they’re separated by three years of loneliness, three years of being physically and technologically unable to interact with another human being, three years of learning to come to grips with one’s own frailties, and three years of living a colossal, cruel lie.

Rockwell’s ninja acting is aided by visual effects and trickery that are nearly flawless—whether the trick is convincing the eye, ear and mind of the audience that there are two Sams interacting with one another or painting a believable portrait of the barren and desolate lunar landscape—and a beautiful, haunting musical score by Clint Mansell. All the elements—story, performance, visuals and music—are blended into a single original, thought-provoking and heartbreaking film that manages to be an entirely different kind of spectacle; one without explosions or car chases or the need to check your brain at the door.

Rating: 5 out 5 Sam Rockwells.

Related posts:

1. Review: Daybreakers
2. Review: SATURN’S CHILDREN by Charles Stross

1. 

   David Mead says:

   January 28, 2010 at 9:58 am

   As you know I got to see MOON at the Cedar Lee – It was great seeing it on the big screen. You got a real sense of the lonliness Sam Bell must be feeling from those huge lunar vistas. I’ll have to rent the DVD for the commentaries.

   I’m really looking forward to seeing what Duncan Jones delivers for his follow-up film.
2. 

   Kris Johnson says:

   January 28, 2010 at 11:19 am

   @David Mead — The DVD contains two commentaries, though I’ve only listened to the one with Duncan Jones and Stuart Fenegan, as well as two short featurettes (one on the “making of” and the other specifically dealing with visual effects) and Q&A sessions with Duncan Jones at two screenings of the film. In the latter, Duncan comments that the next film he’d like to make is a spiritual sequel to Blade Runner.
3. 

   David Mead says:

   January 28, 2010 at 2:10 pm

   I heard it was to be set in Berlin, was called MUTE and that the Sam Bell character would make a cameo appearence, but I think that’s been shelved for now. He’s shooting a Sci-Fi flick with Jake Gyllenhaal called SOURCE CODE now.