MOON

Science fiction, I will happily announce as a way of cutting the ribbon on this week's entry to Blogland, has never been my closest love. To me, little miss sci-fi is a topsy-turvy ride, pleasuring me one minute with such magical gifts as the Alien saga, Blade Runner, E.T., 2001, or Close Encounters, before running off to cheat on me with that spottiest of nerds, the Star Trek franchise (please), or jumping into the back seat of George Lucas' diamond-encrusted shag-wagon and jetting off to another planet named by a toddler (Tatooine? Naboo? Really?).

This time though, with a new independent British production entitled MOON, that girl sci-fi, well, she's done good. Very good indeed.

Directed by Duncan Jones and co-written by Jones and Nathan Parker, Moon is a complex, moving and insightful story about Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), an astronaut who lives alone in a mining facility owned by Lunar Industries and located on the surface of the moon.

Coming to the end of a three year contract, Sam is only three weeks from returning home to his loving wife and daughter when he begins to suffer from visions. After three years of isolation, with no-one for company but a talking robot called Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), it seems logical to Sam that his mind might play tricks on him. But when one of his visions causes Sam to be involved in an accident, things begin to take a more sinister turn, as Sam wakes up to find someone else in the base with him: himself.

There are not too many adjectives that you couldn't use to describe Moon, such is the brilliantly varied nature of the story and of the film's construction. It is sprawling yet incredibly intimate, frightening but also strangely calming. The story itself is predictably complicated, and centres around such weighty ideas as humanity and identity, existentialism and free will. Yet the plot is unravelled with great delicacy, allowing the charming characters (or should I say character?) to develop and engage us with a wonderful mix of wit, vulnerability and intelligence that is missing from so many of the laser-toting space cowboys of recent years.

Rockwell's performance is nothing short of spectacular, and Jones' decision, aided of course by the film's chicken-feed budget (about £2.5m), to use the camera rather than expensive effects to duplicate his character, only heightens the intimate bond that Bell and himself develop throughout the movie. I have come to expect a lot from Rockwell, consistently impressed by his performances in films such as 'Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind', 'The Assassination of Jesse James', and most recently 'Frost/Nixon', but I think that the depth with which he manages to bring to life the two different versions of Sam's character with such an acute balance of sadness, humour and charm shows an intelligence and awareness that raises him above so many others in his trade.

Rockwell aside there is still so much more to praise about this film. It is expertly designed and crafted - from the complex lunar base that has the same funky atmosphere and cold functionality that made Ridley Scott's 'Alien' so cold and inhospitable, to the bleak and dusty plains that make up the moon's surface; sparse and infinite like the lands of Sergio Leone. This atmospheric nature is complimented, as well, by some superb work by the sound, lighting and camera departments, all of which provide more than enough to support and often enhance the feelings of isolation and sterility that backdrop the action.

So it is safe to say that I enjoyed Moon very much. So much in fact that there is little I would have altered about it, had I the possibility. There were times during watching that I was expecting Gerty, the Spacey-voiced robot, to continue its logical journey to a more sinister, controlling role (much like the obvious comparison of Hal in Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey). Yet, again, I was proved wrong, as the film's dark tone gave way in the final forty minutes or so to something far more endearing and Jones's ability to amalgamate different genres and themes took the story into a new and invigorating place. In fact, as the film ushered me joyfully towards its conclusion, and as Sam learns about himself, about the other him, I felt as though I was watching an intergalactic 'Rainman', so touching was the relationship that had formed between the two men.