"On the darkest side of the moon a man who hasn't had any kind of human contact in several years starts to notice severe changes in his health condition.

Sam Bell works at Sarang, where he extracts helium-3 from lunar Regolith for important energy that he is to bring back to earth. Sam has lived on Sarang for nearly three years and the robotic assistant Gerty has been his only company. His contract with Lunar industries ltd is soon expired and his longing after seeing his wife and daughter is stronger than ever, but when only two weeks remain of the contract, strange incidents begin to occur around and inside of him.

The atmospheric and multi-award winning feature debut of the commercial, English short film director Duncan Jones was filmed in Shepperton Studio, London during 33 days for a 5 million dollar budget and had it's premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2009. Duncan Jones wrote the main character in "Moon" especially for Sam Rockwell who delivers a widespread one-man-show. As Tom Hanks where one of few characters the audience gladly followed for 150 minutes on a desert island in Robert Zemeckis` "Cast Away" (2000), Sam Rockwell is one of few actors the audience gladly spends 90 minutes on the moon with. And it is on a white and sterile lunar base this character driven and futuristic drama about an isolated spaceman with an all-knowing and serviceable robot as his only chatting partner takes place.

Duncan Jones' minimalistic expression and the fact that he has managed to keep the production-costs down impresses more than it limits. Jones has constructed a moody and innovating sci-fi film that reflects over the futures imaginative possibilities while it tells an in-depth and existentialistic character drama about one man's confrontation with his own identity. Even though "Moon" has a very quiet mood, the story, the alluring photography and the character development is fascinating enough to maintain the viewers attention. The instrumental music from Clint Mansell, "PI" (1998), "Requiem For a Dream" (2000) and "The Wrestler" (2008) accentuates the nostalgic undertones in this earth remote fable that honors Stanley Kubrick`s "2001-A Space Odyssey" (1968), Andrey Tarkovskij`s "Solaris" (1972) and Ridley Scott`s "Alien" (1979)."

"Marooned on the dark side of the moon, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) starts seeing things - himself. When he crashes his lunar rover on a mission, he awakens to find his sealed outpost repopulated with another version of himself. Director Duncan Jones was obviously highly influenced by the classic 2001. Sam Rockwell doesn't fail to amuse in this quirky tale, the whole movie is centered on him I think he's a very underated actor who shines quite brightly in this dark film. The movie taps on issues dealing with the nature of human experience, isolation & coping with technology in the near future. An interesting story worth viewing for an hour & a half.

Neal Damiano Film Critic"

"Hollywood Reviews

Home Sick!

By ROBERT WALDMAN

First time directors can be hit or miss practitioners. Talent sure runs in Duncan Jones’s family. Son of legendary rock superstar David Bowie young Mr. Jones makes an impressive debut in Moon, a space fantasy from Cinearts now opening up new vistas at TInseltown (on Pender, free parking). Not to be confused with the rousing action packed Star Trek this low budget film really becomes a case study of effects on living far afield.

Way up in the stratosphere lives Sam Bell. Married to a woman back home Sam is an astronaut extraordinaire. For three years he has been living alone in a space station and longs for home. Working for a big corporation involved in space exploration does have its advantage but something is amiss for Sam.

Only a computer with life-like abilities helps Sam pass the time, along with video messages from earth. Gerty seems to know everything and offers Sam all the help he needs. Something, however is amiss as Sam learns first hand when strange occurrences begin to cloud his mind. Whether audiences get confused by the introduction of some new characters in Moon makes this movie all the more tough to comprehend.

Sam Rockwell stars as Sam and does a good job exploring his own passions. Strengths and weaknesses abound in this man who seems tormented. New characters complicate the story which does a good job showing how easy it is for a human to get bowled over by work. I found Moon to be quite slow in developing and a bit burdensome when new characters appear that somehow affect Moon’s outlook on life.

Shots inside the space capsule are ably handled and newcomer Jones definitely has a future as a director. Because of the bland nature of the subject matter some of Rockwell’s great performance(s) may get drowned out by the somber tone. Veteran voice Kevin Spacey (21) charms his way into your psyche as Gerty. Shades of Hal from trendsetting 2001 A Space Odyssey are obviously in evidence here. You can’t really tell if Gerty is a good guy/thing or corrupted which also could have been better developed. Going through the motions comes to mind in their interplay which comes across as being stilted and not that engaging.

If you’re a space junkee and like insights into outer worlds you may find Moon a smart revelation. By all means go see this film for Sam Rockwell’s gutsy portrayal if you like this actor.

Read more reviews by Robert at www.moviereviewssite.com

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