At last an excellent movie that is worth one’s time and effort. First time director Duncan Jones has crafted a fine tale of a solitary man on the moon which often serves as the most romantic of settings for man and his mate.
Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell a technician working all alone on moon who is nearing the end of a 3-year contract with a Helium mining firm Lunar Industries, mining which accounts for all the energy needs of Planet Earth. Sam Rockwell only has GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) an onboard computer for company for the entire duration of his 3-year contract. GERTY is very intelligently voiced by Kevin Spacey and is nothing like the robots we are used to in the form of C-3PO or R2-D2 and many such others. Leave it to Kevin Spacey to convey all the logic and none of the emotion that a robot can convey and come out tops. Unfortunately much cannot be divulged about the story but suffice it to say it will hold its own.
The basic premise, Sam Rockwell is nearing the end of his 3-year contract with the mining corporation Lunar Industries, a very long and almost seemingly unending 3-year long contract and cannot wait to get back home to his estranged wife Tess Bell (Dominique McElligott) and 3-year-old daughter Eve (Rosie Shaw). He has another 3 weeks to go before he can take the shuttle back to Earth. Sam Rockwell is brilliant in the movie here, having only one talking machine in GERTY to interact with in 3 years and no live feed to and from earth. In fact all of his communication to and from Earth is only in recorded video messages and there is no live communication between Moon and Earth. Simply put he is bereft of any news or sporting events or even a TV show. He only has to look at and interact with monitors all day long and of course GERTY who is actually self-sufficient in himself and runs all the chores on moon inclusive of the mining operations. Sam Rockwell is only required to supervise and look into things as and when required. It is only when Sam Rockwell is nearing the end of his 3-year contract and preparing to return to Earth that the truth or rather secrets are revealed.
Moon is very much reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris and seems to have been inspired by such genre of movies. Anyway it is in esteemed company but unfortunately will not enjoy much in terms of box office success. Sam Rockwell is excellent and Kevin Spacey makes GERTY his own and unlike anything else you have seen in a robot. Duncan Jones’ next is definitely much awaited. Definitely a must watch and highly recommended.
