Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
8/29/09
The
old folks reading this (that is to say, old in moviegoing years, which
these days means anybody over 25) might recall a time when sci-fi movies
were based on the genre's literary tradition of using the fantastic to
tell stories that illuminate the human condition and the issues of the
day. They might also recall a time before CGI, when models and animatronics
were the primary tools of the special effects artist. And if you
remember any of that, you might find yourself shaking the person sitting
next to you at a screening of Moon asking “What year is this?!?”
Because while the movie's set in the future, Duncan Jones' directorial
debut feels a whole lot like a product of Rod Serling's time, a thoughtful,
gripping one-man show that slowly peels back a deceptively simple story
to reveal the depths of corporate depravity and the power of the human
spirit.
Sam
Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of a three-year contract as the
lone worker at a mining station on the moon, where he monitors the mining
equipment with the help of robot GERTY (voice of Kevin Spacey). They've
been three lonely years in part due to failing communications equipment
that doesn't allow real-time conversation with people back on Earth.
Instead, he can only trade video messages with his wife Tess (Dominique
McElligott) and watch old sitcoms. With just two weeks to go in his
tour, Sam's getting sick, nagged by a relentless cough and hallucinations.
He takes a rover out to fix a damaged mining vehicle and sees... someone
in the dust. While distracted, he's involved in a crash. Sam
wakes up at the base, where GERTY is running all manner of tests and keeps
telling him he's not well enough to go outside. Something is wrong:
Sam catches GERTY having a real-time conversation with corporate honchos
back on Earth where they vow to send a “rescue” team. Just what would
Sam find if he went back to the scene of that accident?
From
its' spare white sets and old-school effects to Clint Mansell's gloriously
retro score, Moon feels very much like a product of the 70's.
A feeling of time displacement (right down to the sitcoms playing on Sam's
TV's, nothing newer than 1975) benefits a story about isolation and the
problems in trusting your own senses. It's hard to say what year
Moon is set in, even its' own characters might not know, but the
sense of seeming to be the past of the future suits the cold, ruthless
details of the story quite well. The retro futurism extends to the
outstanding design of GERTY, who's mostly a big box with mechanical hands
that glides around the base on a track. A tiny screen displays the
movie's most significant post-70's detail: emoticons that are the
only indication of the attitude that underlies the machine's dispassionate
voice. It's a wonderful idea that works together like a person's
facial expressions to make GERTY the most demonstrative box of metal in
movie history. Jones was wise to select the dioramas-and-models effects
to transport us to the moon. Truly realistic effects were probably
not possible on his 5 million dollar budget either way, and while you can
tell the models are just that, they have a weight and ponderousness that
seems just right for the alien terrain.
******SPOILER
ALERT******* THAT'S PRETTY MUCH ALL I CAN SAY WITHOUT GIVING AWAY PLOT
POINTS. THOSE WANTING TO REMAIN UNSPOILED SHOULD READ NO FARTHER*******
As
you may have heard, Sam does go out against GERTY's orders, and he does
revisit the crash site, where he finds... another Sam. I really liked
the way Jones handles the mystery, playing fair and showing us exactly
what the Sams know when they know it without resorting to Twist Movie trickery.
For 99% of the movie, Rockwell is the only person on-screen, and it's really
a tour de force for him. Because the two Sams have had entirely different
experiences over a certain period of time, he does a great job of playing
those differences to show us that they're the same guy but totally different.
And while he hasn't gotten to play a lot of empathetic lead characters
in his career, here he's a solid hero, particularly when the details of
his plight begin to pile on the heartbreak.
And
I did really like those details: what Jones and writer Nathan Parker
have come up with is an evil conspiracy for the stock market age.
I was reminded of the early scenes of The Island, but while that
conspiracy would have cost unfathomable amounts of money, this one is all
about cutting costs. And in that spirit, I appreciated how Sam is
left to piece it all together without ever speaking directly to anyone
involved. I also enjoyed how GERTY's programming to help Sam accomplish
his goals makes him a willing assistant. Spacey is excellent as the
mechanical voice, calm, measured, designed not to show emotion but having
a certain electronic empathy.
Jones
has directed commercials and shorts in the past, but Moon is his
first feature and he does a great job keeping material moving that could
have been dry and boring. Part of what keeps Moon rolling is the
strength of Rockwell's performance, but there's also real momentum to be
found in the fact that the story's not the least bit metaphysical:
all the answers can be found in the intersection of science and greed,
and Sam does not react to these revelations with resignation. The
final scenes are tense and exciting precisely because it feels like we're
actually watching forces in opposition and not just a metaphor.
But
we ARE watching a metaphor as well as a plot, and it's a solid one.
We all like to think we matter at work, that we have special talents the
company really relies on, but the truth is that we're one in a series of
replaceable parts doing jobs designed specifically so they can be done
by anybody without missing a beat. Of course, what's happened to
Sam takes that to the extreme, but his reaction is not dissimilar to anyone
who's ever learned that his little work empire can and will go on without
him and that the company that doesn't even know his name couldn't care
less what happens to him when he's gone.
Moon
is a great, thoughtful sci-fi thriller that promises bigger and better
things for both its' star and director. If it feels a little bit
like the motion picture event of 1975, it wears the style of the moon's
heyday well. And it just goes to show you that the things worth shaking
your fist about never really change. |
