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6 months ago

Moon

a review by John Chard

Gerty, we're not programmed. We're people, do you understand?

Directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell, Moon finds Rockwell as Sam Bell who is coming to the end of his three year contract on a lunar station working for Lunar Industries. His only companion is an intelligent computer named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). When Sam has an accident he awakens to find he is now not alone and all he thought and believed in is just not as it seems.

Forget any fears about a low budget and any plot similarity to 2001: A Space Odyssey, for this is a cracker jack of a science fiction picture. Film quickly fills us in on Sam Bell the man and his function up there on the lunar station. His relationship with GERTY the computer grabs our interest whilst the production design has a sort of medicinal sheen to it. Once Sam's solitude is established, the minimal contact with Earth explained, the pic then spins into another dimension, dragging both Sam and us viewers into the vortex.

To say more would be churlish, but this is adult science fiction, clever in existential whiles and scathing with observations on corporate shenanigans. Narratively it's evocative in its telling, even haunting and philosophical, where a brilliant Rockwell nails every inch of Bell's search for being, and crucially, the truth. It's all building towards a finale of some devilish substance, no cop outs or easy fed answers, just a pertinent question asked of the viewers. Moon comes highly recommended to sci-fi fans who are after a bit more than mere sparkly fluff and robotic chaos. 9/10