Moon review - spoiler alert!
Aug. 29th, 2009 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gina_r_snapeWell I saw Moon last night, and I loved it.
Having heard and read little bits about the film, I wanted to let the story unfold, so I avoided reading synopses or spoilers. I'm glad I did. So if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be spoiled, don't read this!
Sam Rockwell is an amazing actor, but you probably already knew that. He would need to be, to carry a film like this, seeing as how Sam Bell is either alone or with his clone the entire time. Kevin Spacey's voice for GERTY is terrific. He treads this oh so fine line of slightly sinister, flatly mechanical and vaguely resembling warmth with uncanny skill. Visually, it was easy to believe Sam was on the moon. His home base felt right--tightly sealed, mildly claustrophobic and sanitized; and the lunar surface shots were the right combination of slate grey, artificial lighting, expansive sky, limitless rocks and sky, and silent stillness one would expect.
The film started out giving me a vaguely 2001: A Space Odyssey feel and I am sure there was an intentional desire to have the audience wonder if Gerty would wind up like HAL. In a sense, this film is a mirror image of that one. I need to watch it again to draw anything other than superficial comparisons. But comparisons between the relationship of Sam and GERTY and the relationship of HAL and his crew.
But undercurrent themes in this film certainly captured my imagination. Is it a human rights violation to clone someone and give the clone the false expectation of a 3-year contract?
Each Sam has a shelf life of 3 years, and is never meant to know the truth. Each incarnation of Sam wakes up the same way, and each one is meant to die the same way, thinking he is about to go home.
You can certainly see the uncertainty in his wife's messages, as she struggles to decide whether it's okay to fake her status updates. (You realize in retrospect that she knows what's going on).
Sam's realization of his fate and the system at play unfolds beautifully. It's a triumph of human spirit, as he figures out a way to subvert the system and send one of his selves home. And the character demonstrates nobility as well, in that the dying Sam allows himself to stay behind instead so that his other self (who has not been yearning to go home for 3 years) may return.
So why does Gerty become a mirror image of HAL? Why does he choose to go against the protocol and help one of the Sams get home? Why does he show the dying Sam how the other Sams have died? Why does he allow his memory of prior Sams to be erased? Why does he seem to have a conscience?
And what about the original Sam? Does he bear any responsibility for providing his DNA to this mission? Are the clones any less human than he? Do they have the same rights? Does his consent to be cloned and used override the desires and needs of his other selves? Or is he unaware?
Much of this film was nuanced, which I find appealing. Rockwell's physicality changes to make the two Sams seem utterly believable. You could feel his anger, confusion, concentration, sexual arousal, rebellion, physical deterioration and determination in his body language. The slow unfolding of the story matched the atmosphere of a lunar existence, somehow. And the social isolation was poignant. So was something of a letdown that the last voiceover of the film is a "Rush Limbaugh" style condemnation of the Sam who escaped to earth. I would have left off with the human rights violation hearing. But this is one minor flaw in an otherwise enjoyable and thought-provoking cinematic experience.
Those of you who have seen it, do chime in with your thoughts!
Having heard and read little bits about the film, I wanted to let the story unfold, so I avoided reading synopses or spoilers. I'm glad I did. So if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to be spoiled, don't read this!
Sam Rockwell is an amazing actor, but you probably already knew that. He would need to be, to carry a film like this, seeing as how Sam Bell is either alone or with his clone the entire time. Kevin Spacey's voice for GERTY is terrific. He treads this oh so fine line of slightly sinister, flatly mechanical and vaguely resembling warmth with uncanny skill. Visually, it was easy to believe Sam was on the moon. His home base felt right--tightly sealed, mildly claustrophobic and sanitized; and the lunar surface shots were the right combination of slate grey, artificial lighting, expansive sky, limitless rocks and sky, and silent stillness one would expect.
The film started out giving me a vaguely 2001: A Space Odyssey feel and I am sure there was an intentional desire to have the audience wonder if Gerty would wind up like HAL. In a sense, this film is a mirror image of that one. I need to watch it again to draw anything other than superficial comparisons. But comparisons between the relationship of Sam and GERTY and the relationship of HAL and his crew.
But undercurrent themes in this film certainly captured my imagination. Is it a human rights violation to clone someone and give the clone the false expectation of a 3-year contract?
Each Sam has a shelf life of 3 years, and is never meant to know the truth. Each incarnation of Sam wakes up the same way, and each one is meant to die the same way, thinking he is about to go home.
You can certainly see the uncertainty in his wife's messages, as she struggles to decide whether it's okay to fake her status updates. (You realize in retrospect that she knows what's going on).
Sam's realization of his fate and the system at play unfolds beautifully. It's a triumph of human spirit, as he figures out a way to subvert the system and send one of his selves home. And the character demonstrates nobility as well, in that the dying Sam allows himself to stay behind instead so that his other self (who has not been yearning to go home for 3 years) may return.
So why does Gerty become a mirror image of HAL? Why does he choose to go against the protocol and help one of the Sams get home? Why does he show the dying Sam how the other Sams have died? Why does he allow his memory of prior Sams to be erased? Why does he seem to have a conscience?
And what about the original Sam? Does he bear any responsibility for providing his DNA to this mission? Are the clones any less human than he? Do they have the same rights? Does his consent to be cloned and used override the desires and needs of his other selves? Or is he unaware?
Much of this film was nuanced, which I find appealing. Rockwell's physicality changes to make the two Sams seem utterly believable. You could feel his anger, confusion, concentration, sexual arousal, rebellion, physical deterioration and determination in his body language. The slow unfolding of the story matched the atmosphere of a lunar existence, somehow. And the social isolation was poignant. So was something of a letdown that the last voiceover of the film is a "Rush Limbaugh" style condemnation of the Sam who escaped to earth. I would have left off with the human rights violation hearing. But this is one minor flaw in an otherwise enjoyable and thought-provoking cinematic experience.
Those of you who have seen it, do chime in with your thoughts!
