Moon: 80 Out Of 100 Stars

Sometimes I feel like an overly negative person. I sat down to write a review of a movie I really loved, and the first things I think to do are point out what I didn't like. But that's neither here nor there I suppose. This is a really good movie.

Set in the not too distant future, the moon is being harvested for a mineral that provides much of earths energy. The only problem, on the surface, is that it's being done so by a private company.

Sam Rockwell stars, and I do mean stars. Outside of a few snippets here and there, he's the only one in the movie, except for Kevin Spaceys voice as that of Gerty The Robot, but I'll get into that in a few moments.

Rockwell is astounding carrying the film. I shant give out any spoilers but he is really on top of his game here. He plays the lone worker on a moon base where he oversees the mining operation that is mostly automated. Each worker signs a 3 year contract and his time on the Moon is coming to an end and he's ready to go home. There are such subtle nuances to his performance as the story unfolds, that even though it is a pretty slow film I still want to go back and rewatch certain scenes. In a perfect world this would be an Oscar nomination worthy performance. But we don't live in that world. There is a particular scene late in the film where his reactions absolutely brought me to tears.

Now on to Spacey. Yes he's just a voice, but the work he does with just his inflections and his obvious caring for the man he's programed to protect is just awesome. Gertys emotions are displayed by way of a smiley face graphic that changed when his mood does, and again there's a stomach punch moment later in the film when he displays his feelings toward Rockwells character.

I'll admit that it took me awhile to get into the film. It starts out pretty slow and even when a fairly big plot point occurs, Rockwell doesn't overplay it. Why? Because his character knows what's happening even if the viewer isn't quite sure yet. At first it was a little frustrating, but slowly and surely the script lets us know what we need to know and it works quite well.

Under publicized and under appreciated, The Moon is great place to spend an evening.