Sam Rockwell is the Entire Film, Which is Really the Biggest Plus.

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2009)

Is Moon, the first film by Duncan Jones, David Bowie's son, recalling 2001, or does its excavating station on the far side of the moon just happen to date back to the 2001 epoch, which was indeed eight years ago? I'm prone to the second theory. After the mission carrying Dave Bowman vanished beyond Jupiter, the human race decided to concentrate on the moon, where we were already, you will remember, directing activities. In Moon, the inside architecture of the new lunar station was inspired by the 2001 ship, and the station itself is supervised by Gerty, more of a companionable version of HAL 9000 that elusively bolts around.
One can't peg the story's period, but this station on the far side is geared by a single crew member, Sam Bell, played by Sam Rockwell. He is the entire film, which is really the biggest plus. As an actor with such pure and natural presence, he has been criminally underused, and now we are trapped with him all alone with absolutely no one else around, and he must carry the film all by himself, much to our delight. He's working out the final days of a three-year contract and is near breakdown from isolation. Talking to loved ones via video link doesn't do the trick. The predominantly computer-programmed station traverses lunar rock to extract Helium-3, processed to supply Earth with pollution-free power.
I want to take a step back and consider some latent issues in the film. In an era when our space and distance barriers are being pushed way outside the human comfort zone, how do we cope with the trials of space in real time? In reduced gravity, how do our bodies handle the diminishing of bone and muscle mass? How do our minds deal with such seemingly infinite cycles of seclusion? The 2001 ship dealt with the corporal trials of its centrifuge. Dave and Frank had each other and HAL. Sam is all on his own, save for Gerty, whose voice by Kevin Spacey proposes he was programmed by the same voice synthesizers used for HAL. Gerty seems sound and affable, but you never know with these cybernated things. All Sam knows is that he's past his best before date, and about to be reprocessed back to Earth. Space is a bleak and desolate hole without mercy or care. Sam has no reliefs at all. Who would enlist for this assignment? What kind of a corporation would ask him to? We, and he, eventually catch on.