Moon: Sam Rockwell talks to himself

Dec 4, 2009 by Joshua    No Comments    Posted under: film, film feature

Title: Moon

Directed By: Duncan Jones

Genre: Science Fiction

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

Duncan Jones’ directorial debut, “Moon”, plays like a Ray Bradbury novel, the sort of science fiction that dwells not on the peculiarities of the genre but rather on their impact on the human condition.

The film starts with Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the sole worker on a mining facility based on the moon. For the past three years, he has watched over the process, his only form of interaction being his conversations with the artificially intelligent GERTY 3000 (Kevin Spacey) and one-way recordings from his wife and newborn daughter. As the end of his shift and his return to Earth approaches, the psychological trauma of Sam’s stay on the moon is evident. The minimalist living quarters are covered with pictures and permanent marker scrawl, and Sam’s grasp on reality appears to be slipping. His computer companion, GERTY, fuels his paranoia by appearing to hide important details from him.

The stress is getting to Sam. So, during a routine trip out to the surface to check one of the harvesting machines, he perceives that someone in a space suit is partially buried in the rubble kicked up by the machine’s blades. Distracted by the apparent body, Sam runs his own rover directly into the harvesting machine, knocking himself unconscious and burying the vehicle partially in debris.

Sam wakes up in the infirmary, back at the facility. How did he get there by himself? One of the space suits, the one he was wearing when he crashed, is missing. GERTY tells him he must stay inside and rest for a while. Instead, Sam escapes from the facility – finding one of the rovers missing – and drives out to where he crashed, only to find himself, still sitting unconscious in the rover.

Sam brings the other Sam back to the facility, where he recovers. Now there’s a problem. The station now houses two Sams, both with the same memories of a wife back home, both with the understanding that the three-year shift is almost up. Hostility spreads between them, tinged by the uncertainty of the situation. Who is the real Sam? Who is a clone? What is going on?

All of this exposition happens within the first half of the film. The reality of the situation runs much deeper, as the two Sams piece together the information they can gather from the facility and from GERTY, who is more than willing to assist them in any way possible. Amid the sleuthing, the two men who are the same man face the emotional and psychological dramas that occur as a result of their situation.

Rockwell does an expert job of emoting the complex condition of his character, especially considering that he is playing both sides of a dialogue. The two Sams have distinct reactions based on the differences in knowledge and experience between the two of them, and Rockwell portrays these differences well. Considering that he takes up the most screen time – sometimes doubly so – he holds his own before the camera.

Spacey’s portrayal of GERTY is appropriate. Initially, the character seems like a rip-off of HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Oddyssey”, but it diverges from the other artificial intelligence in that it actually acts against its own programming, instead aiding the Sams in their attempts to solve the mystery of their existence. Spacey’s deadpan delivery fits the common perception of how a computer voice might sound while at the same time insinuating a sort of deception in its words – as if the computer means to lie to Sam like a parent might lie to a mischievous child to make him or her behave better.

The film was produced on a low budget, but the director has done well with what he had. The set is uniform, composed mostly of identical sections of bunker-style, typical-grade space station paneling. Most of the action takes place within the small area. Even so, the space is used well: Little details, such as the writing on the walls and the pictures of Sam’s child, make the space seem like it really has been the home of one isolated man for the past three years.

“Moon” is not an action-packed, alien-filled science fiction adventure. It is a psychological and emotional thriller, with the thrills coming not from violence but rather from the mystery of the situation. The experience is heightened by the believability of the story. Though the story might drag on at certain points, the pace is appropriate for the weight of the issues dealt with in the movie.

Below is a trailer for the movie. It’s a bit deceptive. Events are shown out of order or spliced together. Also, the film is made out to appear more like an intense action film, but that is not the case.

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