Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010

"Moon"

It is fitting that for his first film, writer/director Duncan Jones does an exploration of desolation and outer space. Fitting because Jones is the son of David Bowie, who penned one of the greatest songs ever about being lost in space with Major Tom "sitting in a tin can" in the brilliant "Space Oddity." There's plenty of homage in this movie, with a talking-computer named Gerty, voiced by Kevin Spacey, who sounds suspiciously like Hal from "2001." There is classical music as Sam Rockwell bops around on Moon's low gravity, also a throwback to "2001." The word "Soylent" labels one of the shelves as a tribute to 1973 sci-fi classic "Soylent Green." I wish I could tell you more about the plot but the beauty of the movie is trying to figuring out what is going on. I can tell you this...Rockwell is an astronaut stationed on a moon station, in charge of mining an element known as He3. The story is tight yet confusing, in a good way. Rockwell's performance carries the script, being the only actor that actually appears on screen for the whole movie. The interaction between Rockwell and Spacey's voice as Gerty is disturbing and cold and enlightening. Jones does a fantastic job with the isolation and loneliness involved with this material. Well worth the rent and when you get through watching the movie check out the special features for the short film "Whistle" that illustrates that Bowie's boy has real chops in movie-making, regardless of material.