Moon: Is Sci-Fi Improving on Film?

January 17, 2010 in Film Reviews Comments off

In regard to science fiction literature I’ve always preferred philosophical over scientific. So you’ll find me espousing Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Phillip K. Dick and sometimes Orson Scott Card over hard-science or futurist writers like Issac Asimov, Harlan Ellison or Robert Heinlein. Movie sci-fi has never achieved the depth of feeling and thought that the literature equivalent is capable of evoking… until now. 2009’s Moon is a film that presents a space story so simple that at first you would think it sprang from the camp of the latter. However, the film remains so uncomplex throughout that it actually gives the mind room to think, and to question; And that is indeed the hallmark of the sci-fi philosophers.

Describing the plot of Moon without spoilers is seriously tricky, because a major twist happens only twenty minutes in. Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, an astronaut manning a corporate mining station on the moon. Mankind has discovered a source of limitless energy in the form of helium-3, which is only available on Earth’s satellite. Sam is finishing up a three-year contract running a moon base and four massive harvesters for the Lunar Corporation. In just two weeks he gets to jettison from the base and return to Earth to be with his beloved wife and daughter.  Communication problems have prevented him from talking to anyone directly for three years. His only companion is GERTY (deadpan voiced by Kevin Spacey), a computer/robot/butler that is in charge of caring for Sam. GERTY expresses emotion or concern with emoticons displayed on a small screen, such as and . This, for me, made GERTY instantly creepy.

Just two weeks away from his jettison, Sam isn’t looking too good. He’s grown pale and is suffering from near-constant headaches. He begins hallucinating that he sees a young woman. While riding out in a rover to check on one of the harvesters, a hallucination occurs and he crashes the vehicle. Moments later he awakens back at the base. Sam’s frustration grows as GERTY unsubtly tries to contain him in the infirmary. Sabotaging the base, he finally convinces GERTY to let him go outside. He drives another rover back to the harvester and finds the crash site. And inside the wreckage Sam makes a shocking discovery: he finds a man who is his identical double.

From there I can say no more without giving the film away, but the story develops into a cunningly simple tale of identity, purpose, the relevance of the past and the true meaning of humanity. But these elements remain unspoken in the deceptively simple script. Sam must figure out who the other man is and what the Lunar Corporation is really up to.  He has just fifteen hours to accomplish this before a “rescue” team arrives to “contain” the situation. However, the film never devolves into a clock-watching thriller, it maintains the simple narrative style established in the beginning.

With the Golden Globes airing tonight it’s both a shame and a clear sign of dubiousness that neither Moon nor Sam Rockwell are nominated in a single category. Hopefully the 2010 Oscars will rectify the Globes’ oversight. There are even several Internet petitions and grass-roots Oscar campaigns cheering Rockwell on. I can’t think of another performance I’ve seen in recent years more deserving.

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Moon, review, Sam Rockwell, Science Fiction