MOON Movie Review

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a screening for the movie MOON starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Duncan Jones.

Moon follows Sam Bell, an astronaut living on the far side of the moon, who is completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries. His job is to gather Earth's new primary source of energy, Helium-3, and send it back to Earth.

When the movie opens, Sam only has a few weeks left until he is ready to go home to his wife, Tess, and daughter, Eve. However, during one of his drive on the moon to go get the Helium-3, Sam gets into a serious accident. When he wakes up, Sam is confronted to what seems to be another younger version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three-year contract. From there Sam begins a quest to finding out what the truth is about who the "other" Sam is and how he himself fits into all of Lunar Industries' plans.

Moon is one of those movies that you end up thinking about for days after seeing it. It has so many dimensions as far as the story goes, starting with morality issues to an outlook of a potential future. I found it very fascinating. I think the beauty is that the director does not overwhelm you with the story and what you should take from it, he simply tells you what happens and lets you decide what you think about it.
It is also very rare to find a story that is so perfectly well-rounded from beginning to end. It really feels like a lot of thought and passion went into it to get it just right. Nothing feels rushed and every single moment is played out perfectly.

The directing is brilliant, it's smooth, quiet, and slow without having one single dull moment. It captures the stillness and loneliness of being on the moon by yourself perfectly, while at the same time making you feel like this is your home. Duncan Jones did quite an impressive job for his first feature film.

Of course the movie wouldn't be what it is without the incredible performance by Sam Rockwell. I already knew he was an amazing actor, but in this movie he went even further. I don't know how he did it, but Sam Rockwell was able to create two different characters that are even physically distinct. It's as if two different actors that look the same were portraying the two Sam, except that it's really just one actor.
When you can morph into a character so deeply that people don't realize it's the same actor portraying different characters, that is the mark of a great actor. Coming out of the movie I don't feel like I have seen one actor playing multiple parts, but instead that there was a different actor playing each part. And that to me in genius.

Another thing that Moon portrays really well is the interaction between Sam and Gerty, the on-board computer and companion of Sam, voiced by Kevin Spacey. Even though Gerty is only a computer, it plays a really important part in the development of the story. Furthermore, Gerty is a character in itself, and the interactions between him and Sam are really interesting. He almost feels human.

Moon is quite a ride from beginning to end. You just cannot wait for the next scene to find out what comes next. It's brilliant.

Moon opens in New York and Los Angeles on June 12, 2009. I urge you to see it. I think you will be surprised by how fascinating watching one man living on the moon can be.

You can watch the trailer for Moon here.