A lonely astronaut, nearing the end of a three-year hitch on the Moon harvesting helium, begins to hallucinate. And then things get weird. Duncan Jones’ thoughtful sci-fi is exceedingly well done, with a truly terrific performance by Sam Rockwell. It’ll seem a little murky and perhaps too esoteric for those who prefer explosions in space (there are none in this film), and it’s not a particularly fast-movie film, but it’s ultimately a joy to watch.
Sam Bell (Rockwell) works for the Lunar Corporation, a conglomerate that harvests helium from the crust of Earth’s moon for use on Earth as an energy source. Sam’s been stuck on the Moon for nearly three years, and he’s getting a little antsy – all he has for companionship (aside from TV reruns) is the base’s computer, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). He has human names for each of the harvesters and other equipment, but there isn’t much in terms of external stimuli to keep him occupied. And then one day, while examining the harvesters, Sam has what we might call an out-of-body experience, if we were feeling particularly punny that day. And suddenly those remaining couple of weeks don’t seem so uneventul – or lonely – after all.
I’m reminded of a line from 2010, paraphrased, “You see, something’s going to happen. Something wonderful.” The speaker there couldn’t tell Heywood Floyd what was going to happen, just as I certainly can’t tell you what’s happened to our man Sam or what it means for his mission.
In most thinky sci-fi movies, there comes a time when the protagonists figure out what’s going on, and then they spend the rest of the film trying to do something or other before they run out of time. It takes Sam a long time to accept the information he’s just learned, all physical evidence to the contrary, and by the time he understands what can be done he’s become so weakened that he can’t think straight. And that sort of adds to the veil of intrigue, too; is Sam hallucinating, or is what he knows to be real actually real? In fact, the movie really tries to get us to question what’s real and what’s not real. Is something real because of how it makes us feel? What if you found out this very second that essentially nothing you thought was real has any grounding in reality? Bet you’d feel pretty stunned and bummed.
More kudos: Rockwell is so amazing in such a challenging role, showing range so far flung that you’d almost think it wasn’t the same actor. Sort of like Bruce Dern in Silent Running or Gary Lockwood in the progenitor for these close-in, nonactiony space movies, 2001. His performance is so nuanced and so elegant that he should get awards recognition, but in these times of overmarketing and promotion, it’s not likely that an independent film would be so recognized. Also loved the passionate, majestic score by Clint Mansell. Very much reminiscent of John Williams’ legendary scores, full of pomp and import.
I think people who love mysteries and people who love movies set in the vast emptiness of space will really like this movie. It’s a lot of fun to watch. Rockwell, who’s been good in many things, is pitch perfect here, and the story is compelling stuff, too.
Moon: ***
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