The man in Moon is a man on the moon. He's a corporate astronaut in the speculative science fiction thriller Moon, set in the not-too-distant future on the lunar surface.
Sam Rockwell (right) plays Sam Bell, working on a solo mission for a mining operation run by the massive Japanese company Lunar Industries, the largest producer of fusion energy in the world.
As a way of dealing with the energy crisis, LI is on the far side of the moon mining for helium-3, the element that has become Earth's primary energy fuel.
On the prison-like space station, Sam is assisted by a robotic contraption named Gerty (short for Gerty 3000), given passive-aggressive voice by Kevin Spacey and strongly recalling HAL 9000, the computer form Stanlery Kubrick's unforgettable 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Gerty watches over Sam, monitors his behavior and health, and tends to his needs with tools and an artificial intelligence so advanced that it expresses emotion.
Sam, who has been on the moon for nearly three years, is terribly lonely and looks forward to returning to his wife and three-year-old daughter at the end of his tour of duty in two weeks. He gets to play taped messages from them, but that's about it -- nothing in the way of direct contact.
Bothered by headaches and fearing he is having hallucinations, Sam nonetheless puts on his spacegear, exits through the airlock, and takes an armored lunar rover out for a routine maintenance inspection of the installation.
He has an accident, crashes the rover, and wakes up in the infirmary. Later -- and against Gerty's very definite, articulated wishes -- he goes out again and comes upon a guy outfitted in spacegear who might be hurt or might be dead.
When he brings him inside and removes his helmet, he's shocked to discover that the guy looks exactly like him.
What's going on here? I'll never tell.
Rockwell has an acting challenge on his hands for reasons best left unexplained at this point, but he's more than up to it. Let's just say that it brings to mind Tom Hanks' accomplishment in Cast Away, but with someone or something other than a volleyball to play off. Enough said.
Debuting director Duncan Jones -- the son, it just so happens, of David Bowie (remember "Ground control to Major Tom..." in "Space Oddity" and the film, The Man Who Fell to Earth?) -- concentrates not on splashy special effects or exciting action, but on ideas and behavioral and environmental details.
Unfortunately, the script about the mystery of identity and the impact of technology on human life by first-time screenwriter Nathan Parker could use more conflict and drama. The themes are introduced but not dealt with in much depth.
Slow but not long, the film moves along at its own unhurried pace, which will frustrate some viewers.
This is a modest and melancholy work, admirably thought out and made but on the dull side, that falls short of its dramatic aspirations.
But its visually intriguing moonscape casts somewhat of a spell that should especially please fans of the genre.
So we'll mine 2½ stars out of 4 for a futuristic paranoid sci-fi thriller that's longer on style and story than excitement, but that introduces a promising directorial talent. Moon is 2009's space oddity.
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/16/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Planet 51," "New Moon," and "The Blind Side." (3:02)
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/9/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Precious," "2012," and "Pirate Radio." (3:02)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 11/13/09
This week KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the drama "Precious," the adventure disaster "2012," and the comedy "Pirate Radio." (17:24)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 11/06/09
This week KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine look at the comedy-war film, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," the animated re-make, "A Christmas Carol," and the horror-mystery-thriller "The Fourth Kind." (18:45)
Movie Reviews - Week of 11/2/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "The Men Who Stare at Goats", "A Christmas Carol" and "The Fourth Kind". (3:01)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/30/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the Chris Rock documentary, "Good Hair," Michael Jackson's "This is It," and the action-crime-drama "The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day." (17:43)
Movie Reviews - Week of 10/26/09
KYW movie critic Bill Wine gives his thoughts on the movies "Good Hair", "This Is It" and "Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day". (3:00)
Yada Yada Movies - Weekend of 10/23/09
KYW's Steve Nikazy and KYW movie critic Bill Wine take a look at the animated adventure "Astro Boy," the bio-drama"Amelia," and the action-adventure-comedy "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant." (17:20)
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Sam Rockwell (right) plays Sam Bell, working on a solo mission for a mining operation run by the massive Japanese company Lunar Industries, the largest producer of fusion energy in the world.
