Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
In the near future, a corporation has figured out how to harvest energy from the sun via a station on the the moon.  Sam Bell accepted a 3 year post as the sole human being in the station.  His only company is Gerty, a computer who is faceless save an emoticon that expresses the emotions behind his statements.  It starts to look like three years may have been too long of a stint for Sam.  Is he going crazy or is there something more sinister at work?

Review:
This movie largely consists of just one actor performing–Sam Rockwell, who plays Sam Bell.  This is not an easy task to pull off while maintaining audience interest, and he does a wonderful job.  Kevin Spacey, who voices Gerty, strikes just the right combination of mechanical and human sounding vocalizations.  He does a splendid job being creepy.

The concept of a future where one corporation provides most of the energy used by the planet is a great scifi concept to base a film on.  The technology and sociology necessary for this to occur are both believable enough that not too much effort is needed to suspend disbelief.  On the other hand, the movie never really explains how exactly the energy is harvested.  This struck me as a moderately important plot element to be missing.

The special effects were surprisingly good for a low budget film such as this.  In fact, I kept forgetting that it wasn’t a big blockbuster release.

I can’t say too much more without ruining the movie for you.  I will tell you that at first I thought it was just average, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after watching it.  Particularly when I saw a bus with an emoticon on it that looked just like Gerty’s.  I love it when a movie affects you in a sneak attack way, and I highly recommend Moon if you enjoy scifi or thought provoking films.

4 out of 5 stars

Source: Redbox

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