BEFORE: I may not have been able to watch a Mother's Day-related film yesterday, but at least I can watch a film set on the moon on a Monday, which of course is named for the moon. This will wrap up my astronaut films, and sci-fi (for the moment)
THE PLOT: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon.
AFTER: Talk about weirdness - this is like "2001: A Space Odyssey" meets "Multiplicity".
It takes place on the far side of the moon, where a lone astronaut (played by Sam Rockwell) tends some mining machinery, which harvests the energy from moon rocks. His only companion is a HAL-like computer/robot named GERTY. You might expect someone to go a little stir-crazy, three years without human contact - whittling and watching old recorded messages from the wife only do so much to pass the time.
Then things get complicated - after an accident, Sam is awakened by GERTY, and when he goes out to rescue the vehicle he crashed in, he finds...himself? How is this possible? Has he finally gone off the deep-end? Is this lunar lunacy kicking in, or is there some kind of rational (or irrational) explanation for it all?
And what should a person do, coming face to face with himself? Should he make friends, or (more likely) use what he knows about himself to push his own buttons, really get under the other guy's skin, which is just like his... Before you know it, Sam and his doppelganger (clone? hallucination?) are at each other's throats.
The mining company this guy (these guys?) work for must be a subsidiary of that "Company" seen in the "Alien" films - there's such little respect for human (clone?) rights and basic decency.
Casting Kevin Spacey as the voice of GERTY was a little slice of genius - there's an obvious nod to the voice of HAL, and Spacey hits the right balance between monotone and forced, insincere concern. "I'm sorry, Sam, I can't let you do that..." And just like in "2001", I don't think you can blame the computer for its programming - let's put the blame solely on the programmers when they ask computers to lie. (this was revealed in the sequel books to "2001", that HAL was not, in fact, an evil computer)
Directed by Duncan Jones, who was previously known as Zowie Bowie. Yes, the son of David Bowie, who had to adopt his stage name to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees. How appropriate that the son of "The Man Who Fell to Earth", aka Ziggy Stardust, came up with this. But where are the Spiders from Mars?
Starring Sam Rockwell, Sam Rockwell, and oh yeah, a cameo from Sam Rockwell. It's probably an actor's dream to have a showcase film like this offered to them - comparisons to the Patty Duke Show and Peter's doppelganger from "The Brady Bunch" notwithstanding.
RATING: 6 out of 10 emoticons
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