“Mmm gorgeous rain falling hard outside. I’m indoors with wonderful hot cocoa and a yummy scifi flick.
In a stunning and admirable debut from writer/director Duncan Jones (previously only known to the world as David Bowie’s son), Sam Rockwell is the lone man on the moon. In the not that incredibly distant future, he’s harvesting the world’s primary source of clean energy from the dark side. And as to be expected when you have one guy alone in space for three years, weird shit happens.
I think the twist is pretty well known at this point, and it happens really early on, but I’ll still steer clear of talking about it. The movie is held in pretty high regard, and I’m mostly in agreement. I think it hits a definite lull at one point, but overall it is a remarkable achievement.
On full artistic display is Sam Rockwell, in a one man show. Ya’ll know he’s been endeared to me as a favorite ever since he had the lead role in Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke. Most agree that this is his finest work. However, the real show stealer is GERTY–the Kevin Spacey voiced HAL like robot. With that soothing voice, GERTY is Sam’s faithful and friendly companion. What kills me though is the emoticon screen that changes appropriately. I really want this robot to be my friend.
Jones has a lot of potential as a filmmaker that is just barely getting tapped. His follow up Source Code wasn’t as acclaimed, but personally I enjoyed it. Granted, his science was far worse. Actually for Moon, he held screenings at NASA and got some interesting feedback from real astronauts and engineers. Turns out, some of the technology that Jones thought up for the film was actually being worked on by one of the scientists in attendance. Yay science!”