#19 "Moon" (2009)

Driven by ideas and character rather than effects and action, "Moon" is my kind of intelligent sci-fi.

In the near future, Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) is two weeks away from completing a three year contract as the sole technician maintaining a lunar mining base, his only companion the base's AI agent, Gertie (voiced by Kevin Spacey). After he suffers a collision in one of the base's moon buggies, he awakens in the med bay and is told by Gertie (and via video message from corporate HQ) that he must stay inside the base until he is fully recovered. When Sam disobeys the order and goes outside to check out the wreck, he discovers a surviving crew member trapped inside, one who looks exactly like... him.

Directed and adapted from an original story by Duncan Jones (son of the original Space Oddity himself, David Bowie), "Moon"'s set-up could be the outline of a really good "Twilight Zone" episode, and indeed its big plot twist has the same kind of chilling but satisfying pleasure as the best of that series' pay-offs.

What makes "Moon" so much more than that, though, is the way in which it develops the relationships at its core between the two Sams and with Gertie. Sam Rockwell does excellent work playing two very different versions of the same man, and their interactions are technically seamless and emotionally believable. Their relationship is dramatically satisfying, often funny (you may never hear "Walking on Sunshine" the same way again) and in the end very poignant.

This is my third time watching "Moon" and it is definitely a film that rewards multiple viewings. Watching "Moon" for the first time, what really caught me was the central mystery of what the hell is actually going on - and the resolution to that question is very satisfying. However, because the film is so much more than its twist (take note M. Night Shyamalan), knowing what's going on from the beginning makes for an equally engaging but very different experience, one full of dark ironies but also great character details and real emotional depth.

One particularly nice bit of writing and performance is Gertie, brilliantly voiced by Spacey. Gertie exists only as an ever-calm voice, a mobile electronic console, a robotic arm and an emoticon face, but he has real emotional depth and character growth throughout the film. Gertie is in many ways the anti-Hal-9000 ("2001"'s apparently benevolent but murderous AI) and the role that he plays in resolving the Sams' impossible dilemma is just one more part of what makes "Moon" a reminder of what low-budget, high-intelligence sci-fi can be at its best.