Spoilerific Review: Moon

Stop. What follows is a spoiler filled review of Duncan Jones' Moon

There is no twist in Moon. Well, not in the traditional sense anyway. There is, though, a plot development about twenty minutes in that, if revealed beforehand, would rob the film of some of it's secrets. It's almost impossible to discuss how well the film works without addressing, in some detail, that change in direction.

Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell. An astronaut at the end of a three year assignment on an isolated Moon base harvesting Helium 3, a new, very efficient energy source, and sending it back to Earth. Even though he receives messages from his wife and two year old daughter the last three years of solitude have taken their tole on him. He is lonely, disconnected and suffering hallucinations.

After an accident on the surface, Sam wakes up in the base infirmary and journeys back out to the crash site where he finds (here be spoilers) himself.

To say anymore would be unfair. Is it a twist if it happens in the first twenty minutes? No, but Moon plays with some wonderful misdirection in the opening scenes, misdirection that pays off in spades once all the cards on the table. The biggest part of that has to be Gerty, the base computer voiced with an eerie monotone drawl by Kevin Spacey. I never realised this before but Kevin Spacey actually sounds like a computer. More specifically he sounds like a dangerous computer. It had to have been intentional, Moon wears it's influences on it's sleeve and it's impossible to not to think of HAL from 2001 whenever Gerty speaks to Sam. Spacey is evidently playing up to that and that extra element of uncertainty adds to the ever growing paranoia.

A paranoia that begins to eat away at Sam. Rockwell is incredible in this. It's one of those performances that washes over you as you watch it but on reflection is something truly special. Without revealing more than I should, Rockwell plays two quite different versions of the same man, one who has been alone for a very long time and one who hasn't. Seeing these two characters play off each is both surreal and wonderful, towards the climax one Sam begins to lose control and the other has to take it. Watching Rockwell react to one situation in such different ways is fascinating and, come the moment when he begs to go home, utterly heartbreaking.

Watching Moon, I was reminded how scarce hard science fiction is these days. Jones' film feels like a celebration of the great sci fi films of yesteryear. I've already mentioned 2001, but Moon owes just as much to Silent Running with a pinch of Blade Runner for good measure. The film looks stunning, all wide open shots and sparse empty moonscapes. The set design shys away from claustrophobic dark corridors, instead flooding the huge base with light enhancing the feeling of Sam's loneliness and isolation. On top of that Jones does remarkable work with such a small budget, the scenes with the two Sams in particular work simply through clever editing. Special mention must also go to Clint Mansell's score which is, as you would expect, perfect.

Moon is a great film, and a pretty astonishing debut from Jones. It's a film that stays with you and gets better the more you think about it. It raises ethical questions but lets you do the thinking, and it is the star making vehicle Rockwell so richly deserves.

Another spoiler: Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son. Armed with that knowledge I defy anyone to sit through the film without humming Space Oddity.