Susan Granger’s review of “Moon” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Evoking shades of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: Space Odyssey,” “Blade Runner,” “Silent Running” and “Solaris,” Duncan Jones’ has fashioned a spooky, meditative sci-fi thriller about an astronaut facing an unexpected visitor.
Some decade in the not-too-distant future, mining-engineer Sam Bell is living in solitude on a base called “Sarang” on the far side of the moon, completing his three-year contract with Lunar Industries to extract Helium-3, Earth’s primary source of energy. Working in isolation, except for perfunctory conversations with the company’s reassuring computer, nicknamed Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), it’s a lonely job, made even more frustrating by a broken satellite that allows no ‘live’ communication with his wife (Dominique McElligott) and young daughter on Earth. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive.
Suddenly, near the end of his tour of duty, Sam’s health begins to deteriorate. Perhaps the headaches and hallucinations he suffers are why he had an almost-fatal accident in his lunar rover while performing a routine maintenance job. While recuperating in the base’s infirmary, Sam discovers another presence hovering around him, someone who appears to be a younger clone of himself. The mystery deepens along with Sam’s paranoia.
Performing by himself and with himself, Sam Rockwell achieves admirable and impressive veracity with the minimalist production. And now that Duncan Jones has established himself as an intelligent, formidable writer-director, collaborating on the script with Nathan Parker (Alan Parker’s son), he’s more forthcoming about his own background: namely, he’s musician David Bowie’s son with his first wife, Angela, and was dubbed Zowie Bowie as a child growing up in Worcester, Ohio. As an adult, Jones pursued a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in Nashville but dropped out to study movie-making in London and started working his way up in the British film industry by doing commercials.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Moon” is an intriguing 8. It’s a compellingly haunting human tale of survival that just happens to be set in outer space.
