dir. Duncan Jones (yes, yes, a film set in space spawned by the spawn of Bowie)

So you wouldn’t be weird if you didn’t think ‘yes, this film was definitely fashioned in 2009’ rather than wondering if it’s a long lost relic from the early 70’s, that time before Star Wars shook sci-fi and took it to, well, a different sort of place. Lots of people have declared that Moon is a squashy Silent Running/Solaris/2001/Dark Star hybrid, but having not seen that latter two I lack the education required to comment with any real insight along the history of thinking sci-fi line.

All I can say is this: the plot is interesting, if a little shaky in places, and the final third is perhaps not as riveting as the opening scenes might demand, or deserve. But there’s much in the way of good stuff here: isolation, claustrophobia, a touch of maybe-madness later tinged with probable-paranoia, a top notch performance by Sam Rockwell (who is pretty much the only character gracing the screen) and an artful score which enhances the atmosphere without snatching our attention away from the action.

Even during the more pressing moments, there is something oddly subdued about the film; everything is contained and compressed, but not necessarily intensified in the way one might imagine. Perhaps the remote location renders events less ‘real’, I’m not sure. This mood works well for the early scenes but doesn’t quite lift enough during the climatic ones. The plot is more bendy than twisted, and as such the decisive/revelatory moments somehow don’t have the expected bite. That said, I’d much rather the film be a touch underwhelming than defecate all over its pondersome premise with a tacked on explosion-laden farce ending to inject mismatched spectacle in place of genuine drama. Muted and meditative is a much more satisfying dish than misguided mashed up meddling; yay giving us something to chew over afterwards rather than leave us feeling like we’ve just tried (and failed) to swallow something slimy and wrong.

What the poster doesn’t say:

Look! It’s a man all alone on the moon… or is he? And who is he?

Three word plot summary (symbols don’t count):

man + moon + mystery