Moon

Based upon a review that caught my eye in Empire magazine a few months ago, and because I then saw it in the sales at HMV when in the UK a few ago, I bought and this weekend watched a film called Moon.

Quite low budget by today's standards (around US$ 5m), and even lower in terms of principal characters (one, if you don't include Kevin Spacey's voice), it was really rather good. Here's the basic plot summary, reproduced (without any permission, kind or otherwise) from Amazon.co.uk:

"Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, an employee of Lunar Industries, the company responsible for mining a fusion energy source called Helium-3, which is vital to Earth's efforts to reverse a serious energy crisis. Sam is all by himself, and as he nears the end of his three-year contract, the solitude is starting to get to him, while his sole interaction on the Moon is with GERTY 3000, a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey. Things start to go seriously sideways when Sam crashes his vehicle while out inspecting one of the giant Helium-3 harvesters. He comes to in the base infirmary, seemingly none the worse for the wear; but an unnerving surprise awaits him when he goes back to check out the accident site..."

No big effects as such, this movie stands or falls on the acting of the lead actor Sam Rockwell (him of Frost/Nixon, The Green Mile and, er, Charlie's Angels). And in one crucial respect, the role demands his acting to be (literally) spot on. Which it is.

At only 97 mins long, it can easily be watched in one sitting (or perhaps two if, like me, the existence of children in your life has made it virtually impossible to watch anything any more longer than about 45 mins without falling asleep).

The sleep thing by the way is no reflection on the quality of the film. I thought it was quite original, and really enjoyed it. Michele, on the other hand, thought it weird and not really her cup of tea (which I attribute to the same originality and, perhaps, its lack of Jennifer Aniston/Julia Roberts/Matthew McConaughey).