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The poster’s tagline for Duncan Jones’s “Moon” reads: "The last place you’d ever expect to find yourself”, yet, like few other recent films, it succeeds in effortlessly managing to place the viewer within the film’s universe. “Moon” has a deceptively simple set up. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) lives alone on a moon base overseeing the machinery that mines helium-3, an energy source that supplies a futuristic Earth’s energy needs beyond fossil-based energy sources. Bell is nearing the end of his three-year contract that sees him living on a base on the moon all by himself. When we meet Bell, he is on the last legs of his mission, ready to go home and rejoin his family, the center of his existence. His only companion is GERTY, an ever-present computer assisting him as well as being his sole companion, harking back to quasi AI sci-fi entities along the lines of “2001”’s HAL. Beginning the film with Bell’s day to day routine, the viewer is put into his shoes right away. We identify with Sam and his desire to finish the mission, do his job and then, finally, go back to Earth to join regular life with his wife and daughter. So when things start to go awry, we are right there with him in wondering what exactly is going on. The ascetic and antiseptic setting of the base and the film’s utter lack of showing us what this future’s Earth is like only heightens the sense of identification and dread that begins to permeate the film after Bell gets into a seemingly deadly accident on the moon, only to wake up unscathed in the base’s infirmary. The only glimpses of the real world outside of Bell’s bubble are video messages we, and him, see on a small screen, coming from his wife or the Korean company he works for. Only even those seem highly unreliable to begin with, showcased in a message he receives that is obviously edited by the apparently all-controlling company he works for. What follows is an intriguing exploration of what it means to be human and an individual, owing more to old school science fiction novels fuelled by dread and paranoia á la Philip K. Dick than recent filmic precursors. In that, “Moon” seems to be one of those films that is part of a dying breed – the hard sci-fi film.
Which, in my opinion, is its strength. The deliberately slow pace gives the viewer enough time to contemplate what is going on without elaborate set-pieces or action sequences detracting from the central piece of the film, the character of Sam Bell. At the same time, this seems to seal the film’s fate to never appeal to a broad audience. The sparse, futuristic world the film portrays is utterly believable simply because it is so sparse, withholding a lot of information from us. It leaves out a lot of background clatter – what does this futuristic Earth look like, what is its government and corporate structure? It hints at the bigger picture and a powerful company ruling Bell’s life throughout, but isn’t set in some totalitarian future, instead resembling present-day structures more than providing us with an easily acceptable near-distant future. In that, it seems to go along sci-fi classics like “Blade Runner” or “Alien” in that it presents us with an apparently all-encompassing Korean corporation that runs things and employs Bell. The set-up of mining for helium-3 on the moon to supply Earth’s energy needs also ties into current concerns about running out of fossil-based oil and being at the mercy of energy conglomerates. All in all, it manages to create a believable future by only hinting at a reality without ever spelling things out. Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell is brilliant in his, sort of, one-man show, proving once again he is one of America’s most unrecognized actors out there. Spacey’s GERTY, who starts out as the prototypical robot abiding by Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, becomes a surprisingly fully rounded character just through the use of Spacey’s voice and – at first – silly seeming emoticons displayed on his screen. But the seemingly simple human emotions conveyed through a smiley or sad face become something more as the film goes on. Unlike the Star Wars prequels or Michael Bay special effects extravaganzas that have dominated sci-fi films lately, “Moon”’s sparse but utterly convincing special effects are what SFX should be – effective in their unobtrusiveness. We never once doubt we are on the moon and this is a realistic look at the future, managing to completely involve the viewer in the tale told. It owes much more to Kubrick’s “2001” in style and atmosphere than splendid space battles with aliens, complete with big explosions, like Cameron’s “Avatar” looks to be. If anything, it’s a remarkably quiet film and all the more powerful for it. Sadly, the film never made it into wide distribution and will forever be one of those small flicks you see at your local art house cinema. But if you do see it – and any serious fan of science fiction or thesis films should – it is one of the best to come along in recent years. “District 9” managed to become a powerhouse indie film at roughly the same time, but “Moon” is more powerful in that it is more universal, while still keeping you on the edge of your seat by slowly unravelling a truly horrific tale. |
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