Utter brilliance...

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2011)

Astronaut Sam Bell, who has spent the last few years on a solitary assignment on the moon, watch-dogging a mining conglomeration of machines, is nearing the end of his shift. He's fallen into a decent, if claustrophobic routine, sculpting a small village, checking the machines, chatting with his computerized nanny, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). But he starts to have some problems. Spiraling deeper into what may be insanity, Sam starts to question almost everything, including his very existence.
This movie was fantastic. Jones directs this with a calm hand, swooping through the abandoned base smoothly, giving the entire movie a bit of an alien feel. It's a small film telling a small story where psychological science fiction meets character study. A very welcome addition to the science fiction genre. Sometimes you really can do so much more with less. Duncan Jones does a beyond promising feature film debut for this film. The plot has many twist and turns but nothing too confusing. The Screenplay is great somehow doing a nearly impossible task of freshening up the film with only one actor for the whole film. But that is where the film really shines, the acting. Sam Rockwell is fantastic. His ranges of emotion from both of his characters is very complex. He seems to somehow make the characters the same yet very different, personality wise. He is amazing and funny and tragic, sometimes all in the same scene and GERTY, with it's animated emoticon screen and deadpan voice is pitch-perfect.
Science fiction is invariably a fairy tale nowadays. You can probably connect with a handful of movies showing a fictional future. Most just serve to entertain with cheap visual thrills. Moon is an exception to this degradation of scientific imagination in our modern day script writing. Instead of pondering over the power levels of imaginary "cores" and flashy laser weaponry, this movie strives to ask difficult questions from the audience. Questions that will leave you with no clear answers long after you have seen, dissected and digested the movie.
Script is remarkably simple and there are no "big" secrets except one, which is revealed around the middle. The rest of the story is what gets the gray cells all juiced up. Instead of delivering a complicated plot, the movie delivers a complicated premise.
Soundtrack is excellently suited to the pace and texture of the story telling. Visuals are clean and precise, and most importantly believable – without being boring. The dialogs are also well – real ! No flamboyance or theater grade facial mannerisms here. Just plane and simple acting, done in a most convincing manner.
I rate it 8 out of 10 for its brilliance.