Moon: Review

A crime has been committed right under our noses. The distributors of Moon are the criminals. They have released this fine, intelligent sci-fi thriller the same week as Harry Potter, and even the girl at the box office in the cinema I went to see it didn't know it was on. A real crime, because this is a film that deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

Sam Bell is alone on the moon, working for a corporation mining energy for earth. he has been there for three years and in two weeks time, he will be allowed to return home to his wife and baby. However, in a series of unexplained events, Sam soon discovers that he is not alone.

I'm not going to give away too much of the plot because this is all part of the fun of this small scaled movie, directed with aplomb by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones. Sam Rockwell, who in my books has always been an interesting actor, gives his best performance as Sam, and as he is on screen almost all the way through, he manages the feat of keeping our attention throughout.

Kevin Spacey supplies the voice of company robot Gerty, and you can see the similarities to such movies as 2001 and Solaris, for this is a sci-fi film that doesn't deal with lasers and fights and big special effects, but of isolation and the madness that it brings.

So it may not be Transformers or Terminator Salvation, but that is a good, nay, great thing. It is a mature tale, an adult story that doesn't come across as being childish or lacking in ideas. It is brimming with them and it keeps the attention throughout. Jones has created a gentle, sometimes moving tale with plenty of grace and elegance, and it looks tremendous, very reminiscent of the sci-fi films of the 70s and 80s. As for Sam Rockwell? This is his masterpiece, with a performance that will stick in my memory for a long time.

So if you are looking for the perfect antidote to the big budget crapola that the major studios are throwing up at us week in week out at the moment, you can no do wrong than see this little gem of a film. In fact I urge you to see it.