Moon Review

There is a fine line between pure brilliance and exceedingly interesting. Moon flirts with this boundary so much that even now as write I'm not quite sure if it has crossed the line, or stopped short on the side of brilliance. Nevertheless, it is still once of the most under appreciated films of the year and a golden addition to this rich and fruitful year for science fiction. Not to mention, a breakthrough performance by Sam Rockwell and an incredible directorial debut by the son of David Bowie. I guess not all celebrity children are talentless hacks after all?

Like many great science fiction films, "Moon" opens to the infinitely expansive and seemingly silent vacuum of space. It then slowly makes it's way into the cramped and claustrophobic confines of a space station. Perhaps it was because I was watching this on a Saturday morning, a time in which I am never fully alert, that I found this somewhat cliched beginning to be so damn interesting. Or maybe it there is something about space that time and time again can hold our undivided interest. Maybe it's the mystery surrounding it. Like the ocean it seems to go on forever, only in this case it actually does. And as we all know, where there is infinite, shrouded room, there in turn lays infinite possibility. But again like many a good sci-fi psychological thrillers Moon does not try to fill outer space's mystery with it's ideas, rather it plays off the vacuum's noir. Starting us off with questions, and answering them to only a certain extent where we're satisfied enough to not ask any further, but still sit in wonderment and awe of the furtive ambiguity.

However, if we are so awed by the infinite possibility of space, why then are we always satisfied looking at through such a tiny and truly confined area like a space station? It is without a doubt the foil factor. Normally foils come in the form of a character contrasting another, like Toby did with Sweeney in Burton's stylize interpretation of "Sweeney Todd" or like Dustin Hoffman's character did with Steve Mcqueen's in the prison-break classic "Papillon." However, they can also be found in the case of environments. As for the case of "Moon," the tiny space station extenuates the infinite expanse surrounding it. Hearing all of this you may be quite surprised to learn that moon isn't about space exploration, but rather is a character study.

One may think the tone the film so furtively sets is too greatly contrasting to something as personal and detailed as a character study, but in this case it works. You see, there is a great deal a mystery regarding the central character Sam Bell (yes, that's Rockwell.) We first see him as a man teetering on the brink of sanity, equipped properly with the ugly Hawaiian T-shirt and the bushy beard that cries "I've been stranded on a tropical island with no human contact for over six months." He is however elated because he only has two weeks left of the solitary lifestyle of a lunar mine supervisor. But then, the scene cuts and we see him looking quite sane, with short hair and no facial to be found. Is it retrospective? Is it day before he's leaving? Doesn't seem like either, then what's happening? You don't know, and neither does he, but Sam Bell seems quite determined to get the answers.

If I had to choose between calling "Moon" an interesting sci-fi indie or an brilliant directorial debut, I would have to side with the latter. Ducan Jones had apparently written the part specifically for Sam Rockwell, which is why I presume it was acted out so well. Like this year's mega-blockbuster "Avatar" it's slight unoriginality withholds it from greatness. However, I couldn't imagine this film being made any better than it was.