Moon Me

There was a period of time that I didn't even want to acknowledge this blog existed. It was that shameful to me. Neglecting it for so long. But, something has spurred me back. The tiniest little thing. There are those of you who may fault my reasons to slink back to the keyboard, but nobody gives a crap about your negative feelings anyway. What brought me back was to write a movie review (ewww...).

Before I get into it though, I wanted to let you know that I have no less than three draft posts in my que just waiting to be finished. I had attempted three times to update since May 20th and failed miserably at each one. What did it take for me to get back? A friggin' movie. Not any of your whiney pleas for me to start writing again. Not boredom, not guilt. A movie. It must be pretty good, right? Well, let's just say that it hit a chord with me.

Moon (2009) is a sci-fi flick that somewhat pays homage to the classics (2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and that one George Lucas film he did before Star Wars). Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the solitary contract worker on the moon harvesting Helium-3, the clean energy of the future. His only company is Gerty, a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey. As his three year contract finishes up, Sam starts experiencing strange things and hallucinations. That's about all I knew about the film when I started watching and I really can't say much more without giving up what made it so intriguing a watch.

Moon is the writing and directorial debut of Duncan Jones, David Bowie's first son. After watching it, I can attest that Jones is a solid writer/director. I feel like he must have been an English teacher in Korea by the way I can relate to this movie. The solitude one can sometimes feel living in a foreign country, the silly projects one undertakes whilst within that solitude, the longing to see people, the monotony of a job. All things I can very well relate to. Also there are other strange coincidences that give it another level for me. The base on which Sam lives is called "Sarang." Sarang is Korean for "love" and even the hangeul is written on the base: 사랑. There you go, I helped you with a metaphor.

There are layers to this movie that you only catch by watching and paying attention. First there is the slightly humorous alarm tune that wakes Sam up every morning. Also, it is never suggested, but it can be implied that Korea in the future has a much more global role (and even lunar, asitwere). This is demonstrated by both the name of the base as well as some dialogue. At a pivotal point in the movie, a recording says, "annyeonghi kyeseyo (안녕히 계세요). Goodbye." This in Korean means "stay well," as in "you are staying here. Stay here well while I leave." According to the situation, the recording should have said "annyeonghi kaseyo (안녕히 가세요). Goodbye." This would translate to "go well." However, the fact that they used "stay well" instead of "go well" is pivotal to what happens next and you'd only catch the intention if you knew those Korean phrases. Of course, you still get it eventually without knowing. I love little things like that in movies. It shows attention to detail and foresight that most of your viewers will miss it.

Sam Rockwell definitely expanded his acting chops in this movie, portraying practically the only character we see onscreen. And, despite being a bucket of bolts, Kevin Spacey's Gerty is surprisingly warm and dynamic. All in all, a really well done film that I'd suggest to fans of science fiction. One of them thinkers about the definition of life and all that.