Directed by
Duncan Jones
97 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Andrew Lee
Moon
Synopsis: Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his three-year contract supervising a mining operation on the dark side of the moon. After an accident, he wakes up in the sick bay with no memory of how he returned to base. Sneaking out, he discovers his own unconscious body still in the lunar rover and brings it back to base. He’s no longer alone, but is he going mad or is something more sinister going on?The loneliness of space has been famously chronicled before, so it’s a brave man who attempts to say something new about it. So you have to admire Duncan Jones for not flinching in the face of films like Kubrick’s 2001 and Tarkovsky’s Solaris as he attempts to put a new spin on old material. And he’s got a great compatriot in Sam Rockwell, who turns in an impressive performance as an astronaut going crazy with the isolation, haunted by the fear he has spent too long away from his family, desperate for contact but unable to communicate with Earth due to satellite difficulties. When Sam discovers his doppelganger, he does at least find someone to talk to, but keeping yourself company isn’t easy when you’re worried you might be driving yourself crazy. The scenes of the two Sam’s talking and fighting are well done, but once the plot kicks in, the film starts to unravel.
<Spoiler Alert! The following comments discuss plot issues, knowledge of which may affect your experience of Moon >
Working so hard to set up a moody and engaging situation, Moon comes undone as the logical inconsistencies of the story start to loom large. The underlying conceit, that every three years Sam is vaporised and replaced by a clone of himself to pursue the same work as the one before, just fails to convince. And while it might seem churlish to bag out a film for one glitch in logic when it’s as well made as this, the result for me was that it undid a lot of the good work in the story. Moon has some amazing moments, the best when Sam finally makes contact with his family, only to discover he’s already home. He’s not really himself; he’s just a clone left behind to work a dead-end job. The hope he’s been holding onto for three years is snatched away, and by himself. It’s cruel and sad. The plight of a clone’s life as an unwitting slave to a corporation is elegantly realized, but it’s undone by the fact that there are humans running around in space, as we’re told by the impending arrival of a rescue/maintenance ship. If people are traveling space, then the cost of rotating people through the base versus cloning and storing duplicates of Sam and maintaining an elaborate charade… well, it made no sense to me.
Moon has an excellent performance by Rockwell, beautiful visuals and a suitably ominous score by Clint Mansell. But I’m deeply conflicted about the whole thing. I can’t buy into the rationale for the story, even as I love the way it plays out. I wish they’d spent a bit more time thinking of a better setting, one where such an odious approach to business would make more sense, in deep space perhaps, rather than right next door to Earth.
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