Special Note: From time to time I enjoy reviewing movies for fun. My reviews are always 100% spoiler free. I don't do extensive reviews to often, only when I think a movie is worth sharing. There's to much mediocrity out there to get stuck doing 3-4 star reviews.
Movie Review: Moon
Moon is a sci-fi/psychodrama starring Sam Rockwell (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) and is the directorial debut of Duncan Jones. The film features music by Clint Mansell, who is in my opinion one of the greatest soundtrack composers of the past decade.
Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an employee for Lunar Industries who is contracted to maintain a mining station on the surface of the Moon which extracts Helium-3 from the soil and sends it back to Earth as a source of clean energy. He shares the station with only his robot friend GERTY, who is voiced by Kevin Spacey. Due to equipment failure, the live link to Earth is broken and Sam is stuck with only being able to send and recieve recorded messages from Lunar and his wife Tess and 3 year old daughter, Eve. Sam is contracted to be on the Moon for 3 years, but 2 weeks before his contract is up he starts having hallucinations, and he discovers thing are not what they seem. (insert dramatic hamster)
Rockwell provides an amazing performance, which is good, since he's the only actor you see for 97 minutes. I loved the way GERTY was protrayed as well, emotion being shown by a 6 inch square screen that displays an emoticon. The film is an exceptional entry into a not too often explored genre, Roger Ebert called it hard science fiction. Interestingly the film was screened at NASA at the request of a professor due to the movies focus on Helium-3 mining.
As for me, I thought old school. From the retro sets to the few moments you might be reminiscent of 2001: A Space Oddessey. Though keep in mind the originality of this film keeps it well away from feeling anything like a knockoff, and carries itself well in this impressive look into what it means to be human.
5 out of 5 stars!