Sam Rockwell (in a towering performance) is honouring the final weeks of his three year lunar mining contract when odd things start to occur. His HAL alike robot companion GERTY – voiced by a suitably patronising Kevin Spacey – tells our hero he has nothing to worry about, but we know that either our astronaut is losing his marbles or he is not alone.
Duncan Jones’ superb science fiction debut might have been ripped from the pages of Asimov’s Amazing Tales during the golden age of the genre. It’s just that good. Rendered in lovely linear minimalist strokes, Moon is bursting forth with ideas. There are recognisably scientific details about helium-3 and space stations, but like Outlander or Silent Runnings, much of the film’s internal tension springs from its affecting depiction of isolation.
Sam longs to be reunited with his wife Tess and their infant daughter Eve; there is no direct communication between the station and earth and three years is a heck of a long time to spend with only Kevin Spacey’s voice for company. Space, however, has a funny way of closing in on beleaguered sci-fi heroes.
Mr. Jones never allows the loneliness to drown out the poetry of his setting. Few films are this romantic about a big cold rock stuck in our gravitational pull. It helps that the director has swapped CGI in favour of old school model miniatures. Like everything else about the movie, it’s just a little bit retro and little bit magic.