While watching the sci-fi mystery drama Moon, I was thinking that this was going to be it. . . the first Sam Rockwell movie I’ve seen where he does not bust into a dance routine. But alas, no, he meets his quota once again in this flick, similar to his performances in Charlie’s Angels, Iron Man 2 or The Way Way Back, to name but a few. It is not that I dislike his spontaneous groove moves, they are usually highly entertaining; it is simply something that I hawkishly look for each and every time I view a Rockwell movie – feel free to join the cause.
In any case, back in 2009, first time director Duncan Jones (who also co-wrote the story), who as of today has the giant blockbuster Warcraft in theatres, transports us into a future that has a giant corporation mining the moon for hydrogen to create clean energy for our Earth. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is on a three year solo mission to run the base along with an artificial intelligence robot named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey).
He only has to complete two more weeks before he goes home, yet things begin to take a turn. He starts to notice weird anomalies in the video messages being sent to him by his wife, he abruptly sees visions of people who are not actually there, and his trusted robo-buddy is giving him cryptic answers to some of his queries (is this normal?). Similarly, the live radio feed to Earth has been down for his entire term and the Lunar Industries company seems unwilling to send a team to fix it for him or the next man who will be taking his position.
Is the man just getting skittish, could he be having a mental breakdown from being alone for all those years or is there something more sinister going on? After Bell has an accident while out in his space buggy, the plot thickens as a new person arrives on the base.
As the twist comes pretty early in the film, I will not divulge too much more on the subject. I will not say if the new character is real or not, yet Bell and his new compatriot slowly learn to work together (after butting heads for a while) to unfurl the mystery surrounding the lunar base and their supposed job there.
It is amazing to see what Duncan Jones and his team were able to create with their minuscule budget. This independent flick only had five million in the bank, yet Jones creates a realistic lunar world on the shoestring funds. He found the right man in Rockwell to play the complex, lonesome character – as he is sharp at depicting the confusion, cockiness, painful longing as well as the psychological strain that comes along with the role. Plus, you cannot ask for a better voice than that of Kevin Spacey’s to play the nearly human robot. It is this character that really channels the iconic HAL 9000 AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey – it is clearly an ode to the classic space motion picture.
Moon is definitely worth a watch. Though some of you may guess the twist before it happens, it does not take away from the film – as the mystery that unravels afterward is just as rivetting. It really is a very solid script, and thankfully Rockwell has the acting chops and moves to run with the mostly solo performance. I will leave you with a passage from a song by Canadian rock band April Wine that I think perfectly captures the story and one of its main themes:
Now come a lot further away,
For the people who make me stay
Sittin’ on the bad side of the moon.
This is my life, this is my life, this is my life, my life.