This provocative drama derives its strength from the potency of its ideas and from Sam Rockwell’s riveting performance. There are no gun fights here, no rocket bike chases across the lunar surface, no implacable robots, no scantily clad alien sirens, no wormholes, no star gates, no hive queens, no light sabers.

Moon, directed by David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones from a script by Nathan Parker, is that rara avis of modern cinema – an actual hard science fiction movie. Though reportedly shot for a mere five million, the film looks sharp: cold, forbidding lunar vistas; well-conceived, industrially scarred heavy equipment; and simple, realistic living quarters. The atmosphere, silent and desolate, at times even oppressive, fills not just the screen but your mind.

It is the near future. Earth’s energy problems have been solved by the discovery of Helium-3, a powerful new fuel source, on the Moon. Lunar Industries has cornered the market for the substance and operates a large-scale H3 strip mine on the far side of the Moon. The facility has one human overseer, Sam Bell, played with typical brilliance by Sam Rockwell. Bell is assisted by the HAL-like GERTY (voice by a menacingly calm Kevin Spacey), a station-bound AI. Bell’s three year stint is nearing its end. He is looking forward to reuniting with his wife and daughter on Earth. Due to an ongoing glitch in the communications satellite that services the base, Bell is unable to speak directly with his family, relying instead on taped messages. As his departure approaches, Bell’s health suddenly and inexplicably spirals downward. He begins to hallucinate. He experiences sudden, painful headaches. He becomes disoriented. His hygiene collapses.

On a routine maintenance trip out to one of the facility’s massive automated harvesters, a distracted Bell crashes his service truck, is badly injured, and passes out. When he awakens, he’s somehow back at the base, but things are subtly different. He is different.

What follows is a harrowing journey for us and him. Bell ultimately must confront himself; literally, figuratively, and inescapably. This surreal encounter compels him to dig deeper; to tear away the facade and come to grips with the terrible truth behind the failed communications satellite and his deteriorating health. And, of course, he must also deal with GERTY. . . .

Is Moon perfect? No. The relevance of the dark-haired woman and the mysterious space-suited figure is never explained. If they are merely hallucinations brought on by the illness, then they are overdone. If they mean something, we need to know what.

No plausible rationale is provided for Lunar Industries’ decision to do what it has done. Is it profit? Surely with 70 percent of the Earth’s energy business, they aren’t hurting enough to resort to this, are they? So why?

The gravity on the Moon is one sixth that of the Earth, yet this is only shown in the film’s exterior shots. Inside the base, gravity is Earth Normal. This is annoying but forgivable since, while the technology to create that effect in live action may possibly exist, it is definitely out of the reach of a director working within a five million budget.

Finally, is Bell’s illness brought about by his condition, that is, a built-in failsafe or a medical limitation, or is it caused by prolonged (and presumably unprotected) exposure to space radiation?

But these are minor complaints. The film is a breath of fresh air. A thinking man’s SF movie. Rockwell, a layered, always surprising actor delivers an off-balance, painfully honest performance. Clint Mansell’s minimalist score, low and repetitive, like broken machinery whirring and clanking somewhere behind the camera, evokes both torment and emptiness. Mansell gave us the underrated music to Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain and The Wrestler, and is a man to watch. Think Phillip Glass meets Maurice Jarre.

I’ll end with a question: Just whose voice is that off-screen when Bell finally phones home?

MOON
Sony Pictures Classics
WARNER BROS.
U.S. (Limited) Release Date: June 12, 2009
Director: Duncan Jones
Screen writers:Nathan Parker, from an original story by Duncan Jones
Running Time: 97 minutes