MOON (Duncan Jones, 2009) ***

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2010)

The first thing that needs to be said (and which might not be readily apparent to the uninformed) is that director Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son i.e. he who was formerly known as Zowie Bowie. MOON is a quietly impressive directorial debut that was deservedly much acclaimed and most of its success hinges on a tour-de-force central performance from Sam Rockwell – playing triple roles in what is virtually a one-man-show. The plot-line would initially seem to be reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) – the interaction between astronaut and the human-voiced computer (dispassionately provided here by Kevin Spacey) – and Douglas Trumbull's SILENT RUNNING (1972) – the isolation of the astronaut on an ecological mission; however, the twist revelation in the middle swerves it admirably into the realm of Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS (1972)...not to mention any number of clones/replicants/surrogates scenarios we have seen in the last 30 years! This is certainly not to say that MOON is simply a rehash of past sci-fi fare but merely to highlight the fact that the film-makers know their stuff and, consequently, have managed to make something equally worthwhile despite the thematic echoes. Two further assets to the production that bear mentioning are Clint Mansell's evocative score (with, I might add, no use of Bowie Snr.'s epochal "Space Oddity" anywhere) and the predominant whites in the production design.