Moon

Moon follows astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) on his last days of a 3-year stint as the sole employee of Lunar Industries. He works to harvest helium-3 from the dark side of the moon. With no live link available to Earth, Sam’s only interaction is with GERTY the intelligent computer who is to help him with his everyday needs. This sci-fi drama follows Sam in his daily work schedule until he wakes up in his lunar base after having running in to one of the base’s harvesters. Sam then takes an unauthorized trip to the broken harvester, and there is where he makes a discovery that makes him want to go back to Earth now more than ever.

Lighting and colour play a large part in moon but in a somewhat obvious way. When Sam is in the large protective structure everything is white. The white suggests safety and clean. However when Sam leaves to check the harvesters it’s very dark and almost black. This leaves the audience to believe that while Sam is outside there is a potential danger.

The costume and set design were incredible, as they had to differentiate between two Sam’s. The three-year old Sam was very rough looking. We first see him running on a treadmill with shoulder-length hair and full facial hair. As he gets closer to the time his contract is up he begins to get cleaned up and get a haircut, and shaves. However after his accident he still has a cut above his eyes and slowly begins to look increasingly rough. His clothes look very work and old to further distinguish him as the Sam that has been there for three years.

New Sam however has a crisp clean look. He further distinguishes himself to be new by holding himself in a way that suggests he is military. Rather than relaxing like the three-year old Sam commonly does, he is stiff and rigid.

The set design is very futuristic however not going overboard. The set gives the audience something that makes them believe someone could actually live on the moon. However it is basic. There isn’t a lot of futuristic “gadgets” except for GERTY, and the airlock.

This in my opinion is Sam Rockwell’s best movie that I have ever seen and that includes The Green Mile. Sam captivates the audience, in a way that up until the very end, they still hope for his safety.

Most of the music and special effects are used to show the isolation Sam feels while on the moon. The music does an amazing job at heightening the sense of unearthly isolation Sam feels, as it’s very gentle music that you don’t really hear unless you are listening for it. This is with the exception of the music three-year old Sam plays to annoy the new Sam.

Every time one of the Sam’s are in a rover they receive the common reminder that the long-range communications are unavailable.

The most interesting use of sound, or lack there of however was when the three-year old Sam is outside and begins to vomit blood. Rather being up close to him as the camera commonly does afterwards, it stays far back. This eludes to the fact that he truly is alone, especially when he needs help the most.

The editing is one of the most impressive pieces of this film. It isn’t the first time movies have played with multiple images of the same actor, however I am yet to see one do it so well. To have both Sam’s fight each other and interact on a higher level than purely speaking roles is very impressive and really shows the talent of the director.

This was an amazing film that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Sci-fi dramas. Overall it as a theme of isolation, yet at the same time what it means to be human but doing it all on the moon was something that makes this movie so different and thoughtful.