Duncan ‘Bowie’ Jones follows in his father’s footsteps for the excellent ‘Moon’, an outer-space cinematic ballad, carefully put together and featuring Sam Rockwell at his best.
Outer space has shown up in the imagery of lyrics from a number of artists, nowhere more than in the work of space oddity David Bowie. Bowie undoubtedly belted out lyrics on the mystery of space and lonely astronauts named Tom as he pranced around the family home with his son Zowie Bowie in his arms. This is the most plausible explanation for Zowie Bowie, now Duncan Jones, to craft a story on the lonely astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) in his debut feature.
The film is a slow burner as Jones carefully takes his time to introduce his characters and his minimalist setting of a space station on the dark side of the moon. We find Sam Bell counting down the days until his return home after three years mining the moon for energy sources with his robot companion Gerty (Kevin Spacey).
Bell fills the times of loneliness with videos and dreams of his wife Tess (Dominique McElligott) until a trip out onto the moon surface starts to reveal secrets about the space station.
From the out start, Jones creates a mood of foreboding paranoia, the film is surrounded by that sense that defined the 70s psychological sci-fi cinema, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris. The use of silence on the soundtrack and the attention to human psyche, and its confusions and dreams, only add to this mood.
Mid way through the film, Jones takes the narrative of this contracted astronaut to explore the greed of a finance-driven Earth below without being heavy-handed. Jones never loses sight that the film is first and foremost a study of human character in solitude.
The space station set lacks the wow factor of other recent outer-space films to create a more realistic habitat and consequently a more believable story. It is easy to get the impression from the film that this is what it would be like for state of mind in the isolation of an artificial environment.
Sam Rockwell rises up to the difficult task of spending most of the time on screen acting with himself. Rockwell’s movement through mental states rings true and easily locks the audience in with him for the character’s rollercoaster ride of emotions and revelations. Kevin Spacey’s rational and calm voice work for Gerty provides the perfect counterpoint to Rockwell.
The film never manages to escape the feeling that we have seen this all before in those 70s science fiction films. It does invite comparisons to these films and it doesn’t ever quite measure up.
Despite this, Jones composes one of the most compelling and captivating stories told in science-fiction films of recent years.
