01/11/10 - Moon

Moon (2009, 97 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/

Moon seemed to come to theaters around the same time as Inglourious Basterds and then in the blink of an eye it was gone. However, as "Best of 2009" lists began coming out, it was one of about three movies that was listen on almost all of them (the other two being The Hurt Locker and A Serious Man). I didn't really know much about the movie but the trailer intrigued me in a "realistic sci-fi" way.

Moon has a simple cast, featuring only a couple people. The main person is Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell and Robin Chalk (bearing a remarkable resemblance to Sam Rockwell) as Sam Bell Clone. Kevin Spacey provides the voice of GERTY, a computer that assists Bell. Bell is the lone operator on a moon base for three years as he conducts the mining of energy for Earth.

As you can tell from the cast listing, there's not many people here. Robin Chalk and Sam Rockwell are supposed to be clones of an original Sam Bell (as we later discover) so these two carry the movie the entire time. Rockwell is by himself for most of the movie and simply does a phenomenal job at doing everything himself. I'd like him to be nominated for a Best Actor at the Oscars but he didn't get a Golden Globe nomination so I don't know how likely that is. Robin Chalk does well, too, and sometimes shines just as bright as Rockwell. The two work very well together on screen.

One thing that I really liked about Moon was that it didn't string out the plot and make it very shallow. It very easily could have had the entire plot revolve around the two leads discovering that they were clones. Instead, Moon reveals this at about the thirty or forty minute mark or so, leaving a whole lot of movie left. But in this remaining time, lots of stuff happens and the movie kept me on the edge of my seat. I immensely enjoyed how enthralling and engaging the whole thing was from start to finish. Further, I liked how the ending was handled. There was the last minute arrival of the other ship and this created some good tension. But what I really liked was how the ending summed up what happened to Sam Bell Clone. The international news blurbs was a really cool way to wrap up the entire story while still having the camera focus on Earth.

Another great thing about Moon was the large amount of questions it rose. Moon is a great realistic sci-fi film in my opinion. It starts off with a voice over that sets the scene. It's believable enough and contains just the right amount of depth to intrigue me as a viewer but not enough to make me try and question the logistics of mining for energy on the moon. But the real questions raised are those of the usage of clones and that to do menial work. These people are going to be there for three years by themselves (except for GERTY) and there could be huge psychological problems that result from this. From a company hush-hush perspective, this makes sense. But Moon flips the tables and forces us to look at this from the clone's perspective. Sure, it's also easy to sit back from an observer's point of view and say "Well, yeah, that shouldn't be the way business is done" but when Moon examines this for a clone it makes it a much deeper question. Moon handles this wonderfully. Like I said above, it lengthens a simple plot and makes it much more involving and thought provoking, forcing us to experience the anguish that the clones feel as they learn some new secret. Overall, I loved how amazing this plot was. It was simple but it also forced me to really think about future technologies and in what direction they are going.

One problem I did have with Moon was GERTY. Spacey did a fine job so it was nothing wrong with him. It was just that GERTY seemed too nice. Naturally, GERTY evokes thoughts of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL serves as part of the main plot theme in that movie though, whereas here it seems that GERTY is just along for the ride. GERTY being part of the company that has orchestrated this whole clone thing shouldn't so easily help the two clones. I mean, I realize multiple times that this is exactly the function of GERTY (as he describes himself) but to actually answer direct questions about being a clone seems a little too much for me. While I'm not saying GERTY should have done some killing or something like HAL does, I just feel that overall GERTY was a little too helpful and too nice to the duo. I think another layer of deception could have been added to the movie if GERTY had been a little more complicated.

Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. I was really impressed by it. When I saw the trailer I expected a certain kind of movie. Moon did not deliver at all in that regard but I loved what I did see. The movie was deep and made a simple plot into a complex one with twists and turns. I hope Rockwell gets at least an Oscar nomination for this film. The movie is definitely "weird" but I seriously think it was one of the best films from 2009.