MOON

MOON is a beautiful-looking science fiction movie that’s also an intense character study. There is plenty of strong foul language and brief sexual content, however, which require extreme caution.

The story opens in the near future on the moon. Astronaut Sam Bell (played by the talented Sam Rockwell) lives alone on the far side of the moon to complete a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, extraction of Helium-3, a real substance that could be used for clean nuclear fusion. Sam’s only company is Gerty, the computer that runs the station (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Sam’s time is almost up, however, and he longs to reunite with his wife and young daughter back on earth.

Sam’s mental and physical health suddenly starts to deteriorate. This leads to a nearly fatal accident on a routine check-up of some mining equipment outside.

While recuperating back at the base (with no memory how he got there), Sam meets a younger clone of himself. They realize they are both clones. As the older Sam is dying, his younger clone tries to escape from the moonbase and head to Earth.

Despite its lower budget, this independent movie has excellent special effects. It also is an intimate character study.

Though MOON is well acted and doesn’t lack for personal drama, it leaves some questions unanswered. Also, since the human characters involved are clones with fake memories, the emotional depth of the movie leaves a bit to be desired. The issues at stake for the characters are also slightly undermined.

MOON also contains plenty of strong foul language and a brief, but not very explicit, sex scene. Thus, extreme caution is warranted.

Though they are obviously very different movies in many ways, MOON could have learned a few things about writing a better, cleaner science fiction script from Pixar’s WALL-E.