Sam, chatting to a machine.
Sci-fi. It’s a genre that brings to mind massive CGI sequences, complex extended universes and colourful alien races. Generally, low budget isn’t associated with sci-fi, but this hasn’t stopped Duncan Jones. Moon is so successful because it doesn’t follow formula: it’s something new and different. We follow Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell), as he nears the end of his solitary three year stint of employment, mining the Moon’s crust for the solar energy it stores. The film builds up a brilliant and believable feeling of loneliness on the moon base with silent vistas of earth, a brilliantly minimalist soundtrack and the ever-present low, ominous humming of the base electronics setting the mood perfectly. The mood of the base is also conveyed really well through its “lived-in” feel, Director and Writer Duncan Jones has clearly poured hours of thought into every last detail. Everything from the state of the kitchen to the song on Sam’s alarm clock is both relevant and realistic.
With a convincing setting and interesting premise (I’m not going to spoil it, but there’s some Bioshock level shit going down here), the fate of this character piece was always going to rely heavily on the leading role. Luckily Rockwell knocks it out of the park, with an interesting and VERY believable portrayal of his character. The film tackles paranoia, deception and institutionalism and it does this mostly through Sam, so his conviction to his role really boosts the movie as a whole.
Sam, chatting to a mug.
Although Sam is completely devoid of human contact, there is one other character in the film. GHERTY, the robot. He is there to help Sam and stop him becoming lonely (although it’s a bit too late for that). He is voiced by Kevin Spacey, who pulls of a mixture between human and robotic excellently. GHERTY has a monitor on the front of his boxy frame where simple emoticons pop up. The emoticons are used sparsely throughout the film (to avoid feeling too contrived) but when combined with GHERTY’s calculated but increasingly conflicted use of language, it can produce some surprisingly raw and emotional scenes between him and Sam.
Overall, considering Jones’ miniature $5m budget for this film, he has worked absolute wonders. Remove the budget, and Moon is still one of the best and most touching sci-fi films in years. There is a major plot twist which I have made a strong effort not to ruin, but rest assured that, like all good twists, you don’t see it coming but in retrospect it was inevitable. Don’t read about Moon online (editor’s note: after this review, of course.) because most sites haven’t used as much restraint as I. If you are as blissfully oblivious to this movie as I was before I watched it, don’t read any more, just go watch it NOW.
Rating: 
