Slow to start, but ultimately gripping

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2009)

The plot of this excellent movie is easy to sum up. Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, apparently a technician nearing the end of a three-year assignment at a mining operation on the far side of the moon. His only real company is the operation's talking computer, nicknamed Gerty. One day, he is involved in an accident on the surface, wakes up in the infirmary - and that's when the story really gets going.
There's not much to say about the cast since it basically consists of 98% Sam Rockwell and 2% everyone else. Rockwell handles the challenge of playing the same person twice for much of the film with aplomb, being alternately irritating and sober. The scene where one of his incarnations is bopping to pop music while the other is trying to talk to him about their situation is great. The talker resolves it in the best way possible, short of bloodshed! I think it may have been a mistake, however, to have a well known actor (Kevin Spacey) voicing Gerty. Such things work better – for me, anyway – if someone less well known, preferably kept anonymous, does the job. Then I am listening to what the voice says rather than the voice itself.
In these days of CGI and other hi-tech gizmos, the clunky special effects portraying the lunar surface (loved that starry sky) had a certain nostalgic charm. But the sets were great, with just the right combination of technical sophistication mixed with wear and tear.
Watching this reminded me of Noah Kadner's high-quality, but depressing, short film "Today's Life". Luckily, though similar in theme and temperament, this piece kept the quality, but avoided the depression.
Rating: 8/10