Moon

Viewer Rating:pandabat has rated Moon rating: 4 Star

Skirting somewhere between thriller and mystery drama with a sci-fi edge to it, "Moon" is a movie that shuns the high budget special effects and instead keeps things simple and on the story. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is a company worker with a three year contract t be stationed at a mining operation faciility on the dark side of the moon. He is alone save for a computer companion, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), who is there to assist Sam. Due to a communications failure, Sam can send and receive pre-recorded messages back and forth to Earth but he has not had a live conversation for the duration of his stay. As his tenure on the station draws to a close, he begins experiencing some unusual hallucinations which initially cause him to question his sanity but he could not begin to guess where these visions will ultimately lead. Sam Rockwell is excellent in "Moon". He has to be for he is basically the only actor on screen for most of the movie and he carries it extraordinarily well. Rockwell has tended to take lead roles in movies that are not necessarily overly commercial but this, while still a little off the beaten track, is still very accessible and quite mainstream. It's directed by Duncan Jones, son of Daid Bowie, and, given the limited budget, he made a little go a very long way. For sure it's not fast paced but it hasn't got the painful pacing of, say, "Solaris" and for sure it hasn't got fancy special effects but they're suprisingly effective and not cringe-inducing like, say, "Power Rangers" or "Blake 7". No, the heart of this movie is a good story that keeps you guessing which is married to Rockwell's versatile acting and it is a marriage made in movie heaven. Not a perfect movie by any means but it's more than competent and that puts it head and shoulders above most of the other releases out there at the moment. See it if you can.

Review published on the 11 August 2009 15:25