"I am the one and only... nobody I'd rather be."

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2012)

Hadn't heard that song in quite a while! Not sure I'd want to wake up to that every day. Every now and then, in that vast sea of super hero movies, remakes, and sequels, we have an intelligent film get made. And this on is science/fiction. A double bonus! Moon is the story of an isolated man nearing the end of a 3 year gig at a mining operation on (you guessed it) the moon. And he is really looking like he's been there that long and can't wait to get back to Earth. Sam Rockwell plays astronaut Sam Bell who seems so bored he cannot wait to do menial tasks like jump into a surface rover and retrieve a cannister of mineral from one of the enormous terrestrial harvesters outside. Communications malfunctions are keeping him from any real time contact with his wife and daughter back home. At least that's one of the things he's meant to believe....
Anyone isolated from regular human contact for that long is bound to start experiencing odd phenomena after a while. And Sam is no different. He begins to see brief visions of women where no woman should be. One of these visions leads to an accident with a surface rover. Sam wakes up from it on a slab in the infirmary, and that's where things start getting weird. (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW) The first odd thing we notice is that Sam Appears to have no visible injuries, even though we saw him take a pretty nasty shot to the head during the accident. Next, the helpful computer/robot voiced by Kevin Spacey instructs Sam he is not to go outside until help arrived from Earth to clean up the accident. Considering who/what Sam is, you'd think he would simply obey this directive. For Sam is just a clone. A clone of some long dead astronaut from years past. Every three years his physical form wears out, and a new one is created from a storage space below the facility. Sam makes it outside and finds the crash site. And soon, there is more than one Sam haunting the facility! Further plot details I urge you to experience for yourself.
Director Duncan Jones and his crew create an aesthetically appealing moon surface and machines and equipment that look impressive. The acting, pretty much all by Sam Rockwell, is terrific. Rockwell has always been a valued performer not afraid of challenging roles in fringe projects. He clearly has the stuff to be a A-lister, but he sticks to more challenging roles. Kevin Spacey does a good enough HAL impression with a kind-sounding voice hiding all kinds of secrets and probably an agenda all his own. But this time, the computer seems to be helping the astronauts instead of hindering their plight. The film also gets props for not stringing us along with cryptic clues that will lead to a shocking revelation at the conclusion. We learn Sam's circumstances as he learns them, and that helps us identify with him. Even though he is clearly nothing like us, after all. The film loses points for falling back on that age-old cliché of having a huge and faceless corporation act as the bad guy. Just like in Alien and so many others. Also, the properties of gravity in this environment are not properly spelled out even though they must be somewhat different that those on Earth. Gravity seems to be just the same within this mining facility, and it doubtfully would be. Still, a wonderful effort and fine finished product. 8 of 10 stars.
The Hound.