Solid if sad sci fi

Rating: 8/10 (20 March 2016)

In this basically-British (and quite cerebral) film from son of the late David Bowie, Duncan Jones, it's 2035, and some technological process has allowed Earth's energy (and climate?) problems to be resolved by the simple expedient of crushing up the Moon's surface to obtain Helium-3 for fuel. You may think it best not to ask too many questions about the plausibility of that, but in fact you're wrong - it's a real possibility readily findable on the European Space Agency website. Asking questions about the morality of that - in terms of how we treat other worlds - might be a slightly different matter...
Anyway, the Moon of that future, less-troubled Earth remains a remote, lonely and occasionally hostile place (though mostly just dull), yet for some apparently implausible reason they've (which means a giant mining consortium has) decided to make it a one-man-run operation. One says "apparently implausible", since in fact the concern (called Lunar Industries) has got things very well worked out indeed - down to a fine art in fact. And just how that all works out is the gradual process of discovery engaged in by our hero "Sam", played in a not-especially-appealing but very realistic way by Sam Rockwell, and of course witnessed by we viewers. Needless to say, in this out of sight and out of mind kind of place, there is every possible opportunity to raise business efficiency and to cut business costs...
Without giving very much more away, the aforesaid discovery process is a somewhat sad, depressing and shocking affair, so this film is definitely light on laughs. But it is well done, and raises quite a few questions. (Not least a nagging, if perverse and unwelcome feeling appearing hours later that just conceivably there might be a grain of sympathy for the company's rational, pragmatic solution)!
Part of the pleasure here lies in the interaction between Sam and the robot GERTY (played by Kevin Spacey in typically dour and enigmatic style). There's a definite air of (HAL-like) menace about GERTY, yet Sam's life is in its (his?) hands, and those famous Laws of Robotics kick in as they should to ensure that GERTY enlightens Sam - or keeps him in the dark - in line with (a robotic conscience's view of) what's in his best interest. For much of the time, GERTY - notwithstanding a status as a "company man" - is the best and only friend Sam has got, and the robot actually proves its worth, time and again - and it's quite touching.
There are several other moving moments in what is ultimately a dark and rather understated piece, but one which achieves a look of plausibility and authenticity. One could never say it was fun to get through, but there are nevertheless compensations. In particular, one can at no point say that: "that's just stupid". It really isn't that kind of film, and very welcome for that...