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Moon

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Moon reviews
67
8.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 42 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Duncan Jones (original story)
Nathan Parker

Directed by: Duncan Jones

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 12, 2009

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color

Origin: UK

Summary

RATING: R for language

Starring Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw, Kaya Scodelario, and Benedict Wong

It is the near future. Astronaut Sam Bell is living on the far side of the moon, completing a three-year contract with Lunar Industries to mine Earth’s primary source of energy, Helium-3. It is a lonely job, made harder by a broken satellite that allows no live communications home. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive. Thankfully, his time on the moon is nearly over, and Sam will be reunited with his wife, Tess, and their three-year-old daughter, Eve, in only a few short weeks. But, Sam’s health starts to deteriorate. Painful headaches, hallucinations and a lack of focus lead to an almost fatal accident on a routine drive on the moon in a lunar rover. While recuperating back at the base (with no memory of how he got there), Sam meets a younger, angrier version of himself, who claims to be there to fulfill the same three year contract Sam started all those years ago. Confined with what appears to be a clone of his earlier self, and with a “support crew” on its way to help put the base back into productive order, Sam is fighting the clock to discover what’s going on and where he fits into company plans. (Sony Pictures Classics)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

More than anything this is an intelligent film, a satisfying bit of old-school sci-fi suspense.

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89

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Moon doesn't belabor anything, really, so confidently measured and philosophically nuanced it all plays out (aided by a striking, under-the-skin original score by Clint Mansell).

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88

ReelViews James Berardinelli

After the chaos of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," it's refreshing to encounter a science fiction film that respects the intelligence and attention span of an adult.

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88

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Moon is a potent provocation that relies on ideas instead of computer tricks to stir up excitement.

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88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Moon is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital.

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83

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Moon is enjoyable as much for its small scale and solid execution as for its crazy twists and creeping existential dread.

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Moon doesn't arrive with a train of ballyhoo, but its quiet charms easily drowns out the clatter of bigger, dumber pictures.

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80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This eerie drama harks back to sci-fi movies of the late 60s and early 70s that explored inner as well as outer space (2001, Solaris, and particularly Silent Running).

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80

Empire Simon Crook

They do make ’em like they used to -- a fresh blast of old-school sci-fi, bursting with ideas and a stellar turn from Rockwell.

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80

Film Threat Whitney Borup

Moon is one of those rare gems of the sci-fi genre that takes its acting as seriously as it treats its special effects.

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80

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Under Duncan Jones' kinetic direction, Moon also shines on the production front: Cinematographer Gary Shaw's shaded shots intensify the drama, and Clint Mansell's music heightens the psycho-scape.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

Moon, a superb first feature directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) and starring an impressive Sam Rockwell, is an intelligent, evocative and deceptively low-key sci-fi adventure.

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75

TV Guide Josh Ralske

Moon is a small-scale film, but, thanks in no small part to Rockwell, its mix of thematic grandeur and human drama makes it a worthy successor to those 1970s science fiction films that inspired it.

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75

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Moon is a deceptively simple study of alienation, paranoia, and loneliness.

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75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

Watching Moon is kind of like seeing a booster rocket thrust seventies' sci-fi films deeper into orbit.

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75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Most contemporary sci-fi movies come on with all CGI-guns blazing, trying to blow the roof off the theater. Moon settles for trying to blow your mind instead.

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70

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The film's ideas are interesting, but don't feel entirely worked out, and Mr. Rockwell's intriguingly strange performance (or performances) is left suspended, without the context that would give Sam's plight its full emotional and philosophical impact. The smallness of this movie is decidedly a virtue, but also, in the end, something of a limitation.

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70

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I won't pretend to understand the movie's deep meaning--if it has one--but I can say three things for sure: Mr. Rockwell gives a brilliant performance, the physical production is impressive and Moon made me think. Four things: It made me smile.

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70

Variety Dennis Harvey

Despite its handsome look and good thesping workout for Sam Rockwell, the story stretches a bit thin over feature length.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The double role suits Rockwell perfectly -- in fact, it suits him a little too well.

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65

NPR Bob Mondello

The actor proves capable of embodying all sorts of contradictory impulses as his character becomes tragically self-aware. But he can't overcome a plot that goes slack at precisely the moment it should be soaring, or a corporate-villainy premise that practically begs not to be looked at too closely.

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63

New York Post Kyle Smith

Freaked-out funky weirdness starts to happen all around him (Rockwell).

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63

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Moon might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans of Sam Rockwell. Will there ever be more of him in one movie than there is here?

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63

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Kevin Spacey delivers his least-mannered, most effective big-screen performance in years as the voice of the nearly omniscient computer-robot, GERTY, whose silky ambiguity resembles HAL's in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."

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50

Washington Post Dan Zak

Storywise, Moon fails to live up to the promise of its premise. There's plenty of atmosphere, but little gravity.

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50

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Impressively pulled together on a modest budget, Moon has a strong lead and a valid philosophical premise but, despite Bell's fissured psyche, the drama is inert.

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50

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

Try as they might, the filmmakers never hit the outer reaches of imagination that both Kubrick and Bowie did. Which is not to say the film completely implodes into a black hole either.

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25

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Moon is boring. Agonizingly, deadeningly, coma-inducingly, they-could-bury-you-alive-accidentally boring.

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16

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It just may be the most boring movie ever made – period.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tom C. gave it a9:
Note: You will probably only like this if you appreciate great acting and good, quality films on a small-scale like I do. But don't worry, I'm not a super stuck-up "high art-films/ drama only" type of guy. When I'm back in California, I'm seeing Transformers 2! (Hey, I grew up with'em!) “Moon” is a very interesting film. I had only seen bits and pieces of it in advertisements, and what I could gather was that it would be an hour-and-a-half tale of a lonely astronaut and his quirky robot assistant. In many ways this is true. However, this is hardly a basic description. Yes, the astronaut is lonely and the robot is quirky. But what if the astronaut’s loneliness might be driving him insane, or his robot holds quite a few sinister secrets. Or what if the astronaut’s (I should stop saying astronaut, he is technically a lunar miner) being on his Moon station is part of a dark conspiracy? Yes, this seems like a typical sci-fi thriller premise (and yes, this is a sci-fi thriller- but it is also much more). But this premise merely sets the tone for some truly remarkable acting and a superb script. Sam Rockwell (the script was literally written for him- writer/ director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) had him in mind as the main character) breathes life into Sam Bell, a worker employed by Lunar Industries to mine Helium-3, Earth’s primary energy source (it’s the future, people!). He is under a three year contract which will be ending in two weeks, and he can go back to see his wife and three-year-old daughter. He is looking forward to this very much, as his loneliness is not helped by Gerty, the station robot/ AI who’s a little too technical for Sam(voiced by Kevin Spacey with an odd charm), and only being able to send taped messaged to said wife and daughter (having no live conversations). In the beginning of the film, he starts having typical loneliness-induced visions of his wife being around the station and all. One of the visions lands him in a freak accident with a lunar rover, and he wakes up to find himself with another version of -guess who?- himself, milling about the station. Now, at this point, (since I do not want to give spoilers, I will say this) you think you know what’s going on, and that the film is failing in it’s attempt to surprise you. When you do find out what’s going on (shortly after, I might add), you feel that the plot is somewhat cheesy (by the way, you haven’t yet figured EVERYTHING out yet, there’s still much more to come). However, the plot is nowhere near cheesy (well, maybe just a little with Gerty’s silliness, but it’s forgivable, because it’s charming and hilarious), and the plot, like the premise, sets up Rockwell for some of the best acting I’ve seen in recent films. It is cliché to say “it really does feel like he’s two different people”, but it is the case here. But since it is just a different version of himself, parts of the two characters are the same, and I’m guessing this allowed Rockwell to transition between the two different characters with relative ease. And it shows. I had never really heard too much about Rockwell before this film, but now he has to be feeling good having this on his resumé: this film truly showcases his incredible yet (ironically) down-to-earth acting prowess. The two Sams remind me of another film I adore, Adaptation, again not only having a great script, but a remarkable acting performance by Nicholas Cage playing two characters (Nick, how could you fall so far?). But, sadly, this film is not without some very minor flaws. The reason for the freak accident in the beginning seems very deus ex machina-ish. And the down-to-earthness of Rockwell’s acting only briefly at times feels at odds with the slightly out-of-this-world plot. But the d.e.m. is short and barely noticable, and the rest of the time, Rockwell’s acting fits the move perfectly, even giving the desolation of the far side of the moon a human feel. Adding to the human feel is, again ironically, Gerty, who can give a sinister feeling in one minute and a genuinely innocent one the next. All in all, “Moon” is a triumph of small-scale sci-fi. Though Duncan Jones writing the part specifically for Rockwell does seem like low-risk writing, it pays off perfectly. As an aspiring writer/ director myself, this is the type of film I could see myself making. Rockwell is grounded in his two characters, and Jones takes small-scale writing to soaring new heights, shooting not for distant stars, but landing softly on the Moon. A-

Edward K gave it a9:
You had to pay attention to understand everything that was happening, but it was well worth the effort.

Owen O gave it a9:
A very Intelligent Indie Sci fi movie, One of the most comforting to watch in a long time. This Movie COULD have turned into a sci-fi cliche, but it didnt, it took tenants from the great Sci-fi's of the past and it did something no has done in a while: it did something original. I have to Question why "Christian Science Monitor" was even added as a legitimate review.. is Peter rainer a 7 year old child? a complete farce..

holly c gave it a7:
Really liked this film---as a reviewer said above, this is a "hard sci-fi" film, more akin to an Arther C. Clark short story or something---really solid, intelligent story. The acting, direction and script were great--Sam Rockwell=excellent. It didn't really hit the epic standards of 2001, but then, I don't think it was swinging for the fences. Definitely worth a matinee price if you can still see it in theaters--and most definitely worth the DVD rental.

Phil S gave it an8:
Finally, a smart piece of filmed science fiction. Sam Rockwell is superb in what is essentially a monologue, and Jones' direction is deliberate and exacting. Moon is a bit slow for those used to mindless brutality characteristic of action filsm these days, and the story is not as original as I had hoped, but it is a marvel to behold. Art direction is thoughtful and dramatic, and Jones' manages to make me walk out of the theater with what Kubrick once called "a lingering feeling."

Aaron F gave it a6:
The movie was quite intriguing and interesting at times, although the plot seemed somewhat drawn out and the end was a bit confusing.

Jeff A gave it an8:
Agreeing with most, I was happy to see an intelligent sci-fi movie that wasn't muddled with CGI (not that I can't enjoy special effects). This is a solid film all around.

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