One Way Ticket to the Moon

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2014)

Director Duncan Jones's first feature length makes you keep guessing. It is a film that requires a lot from the keen viewer and at ninety three minutes, it isn't asking for much.
Existential delusions the loneliness of space and time and darkness make this film one of the best science-fictions out there; a shoe-string film that surprised everyone.
Thirty minutes into the film and I had lost sense of time. The film is woven with care, the models crafted with much trouble. Having said that, the quantity of character(s) in the film – at times – holds you back. From what I read it was a financial thing. However, Jones and Rockwell pull it off pretty nicely.
There is also a robot (Kubrick's HAL 9000 has become an integral part of our subconscious) named GERTY voiced by Kevin Spacey. I also happened to finish 'Se7en (1995)' a couple of hours back and the guy is invisible yet, the guy is all over the place.
Of genre-trapping, there had to be some, only if to come to terms with a plot this thoughtful. The script written by Jones and Nathan Parker becomes retro yet very real when the finished goods are for taking.
The moon-landscape is lifeless and dreary even though the 'moon-surface' images are full color and taken from the Japanese lunar orbiter, SELENE, they still appear to be monochrome, lifeless & in stark contrast to culture and romance; things that make us human.
Sam Rockwell does a pretty decent job for a character this complex. He plays the decaying astronaut with skill and rhythm. The ending, I feel, is being overrated by people calling it 'a major confrontation' and 'grand'.
The film and everything about it is an idea, an unbalanced idea, a film that does not have an end or even a beginning for that matter. It leaves you questioning your beliefs and conditioning; the memories, who do they really belong to? Does it make a difference to the immortal clockwork when we are being sent back to Earth?
Heavy fuel, I know; I loved watching Rockwell's undaunted performance, which added to the film's success. He is a fine one.
The film also gives homage to films like THX 1138 (1971), Solaris (1972), Alien (1979) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) among other genre- bending ventures into space. An eccentric, poignant and a thoughtful watch that asks how long will you live for?
'250,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face...is yourself''; tag-line for 'Moon'