Moon isn’t a complicated film; not really. People will tell you it is, but it isn’t. It’s not existential. It’s not ponderous. It is really very simple.
Watch Sam Rockwell.
That’s it.
Nothing more required.
Sam Rockwell delivers the greatest performance of 2009, as well as in his varied and eclectic career. He plays a work-man supervising the mining of precious energy producing resources on the surface of our moon. To say any more than that would be to the direct detriment to the story. The simple fact is that the devastating journey Rockwell’s discovers take him on reveal a flawed, matured and deeply sympathetic individual who takes his place amongst the most realistic characters ever drawn, despite his deeply science fiction confines.
Now as much as I maintain this is Rockwell’s picture, I cannot deny that it was written and directed with the utmost of skill. The subtle cues, the misdirection, the tragedy, all of it handled as presicely as possible.
In short, this is a devastating little film with sincerity and wit in spades, and it is without doubt in my mind the best film to be produced in 2009.