Review of Moon (2009) by Jonathan B — 27 Jan 2014

I really like this science fiction movie which stars Sam Rockwell. It is a quiet, unhurried tale that is pretty much a solo piece, well with a twist. Rockwell plays an astronaut, Sam Bell, during the final days of a three year mission overseeing an automated mining operation on the far side of the moon.

With the communications link to Earth being erratic at best, his only real companion is GERTY, the base computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Bell begins to suffer deteriorating health with headaches, sleeplessness and visions and this condition leads to an accident that brings uncertainty and chaos to Sam's life and also exposes a dark secret being kept by the mining company.

This film has a realistic feel to the technology and situation and is definitely on the grittier side of the science fiction genre. Everything on the moon base works in a plausible manner and looks like it was designed for functionality.

This is a great full length feature directorial debut from Duncan Jones who manages to make what was a relatively small budget movie feel a lot larger in scale. It is also a great showcase for some superb model work which adds greatly to the atmosphere and pitch of the story.

Adding to all of this is a beautifully sparse but very effective score by Clint Mansell which never becomes intrusive and completes the visuals perfectly. Moon was rightly nominated for and indeed won lots of awards when it was released back in 2009 and it still holds up brilliantly well against many more movies of this genre.