I caught this last night at The Crest (huzzah for $3 movies) and I was thoroughly impressed. Sam Rockwell gives an incredibly real performance as Sam Bell, a man who works on the moon, alone, apart from his robotic helper, Gerty. Sam is two weeks from the end of his three-year contract when things start getting weird for him. I won't give too much away, but I will say that the man who arrives to replace him and take over the mining operation is, oddly, Sam Bell.The movie pays tribute to a number of great science fiction films, most notably 2001, ALIEN, and BLADE RUNNER, and it shares a place of honor with each of them. So many sci-fi films nowadays gleefully forgo logic and character for special effects and flashy camerawork (I'm looking at you, STAR TREK), but like the classic films I mentioned above, the beating heart of MOON comes from the beating heart of its characters, even the melancholy Gerty. Sam Bell isn't an abstraction, an idea, but a human being who is endlessly relatable and recognizably fragile. It is his journey, his discoveries, and his pain that keep your eyes on the screen, and keeps the movie in your memory. Well done.
1 comment:
I've been intrigued by this movie since I heard an NPR interview with Duncan Jones several months ago. He was a great interview, and it sounds like he's made a really compelling movie. Now that I know it also has your approval, I'll definitely have to see it. :)
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