DVD Of The Week: Moon (2009)

Astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is into the last two weeks of his three-year contracted solo stint at a mining facility on the dark side of the moon.

Dreaming of his wife and young daughter back on Earth, the isolation is starting to get to him.

All Sam has for company is the moon base's helpful computer Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), old, recorded messages from his family (as the live link-up connection back home has been damaged) and reruns of Bewitched and the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Sam's attention is wandering, he's seeing things and then an accident on the lunar service sets in motion a chain of events that has him questioning everything and eventually making him realise he's not the man he thought he was.

Several weeks ago, the science-fiction website io9 (my 'go-to' site for all things sci-fi) ran a countdown of the "movie twists" of the year and foolishly I read it and stumbled across Moon's "big reveal" much to my annoyance.

Thankfully, the twist (which I won't give away in case you don't know it yet, but it's a mindblower!) actually comes before the half-way mark in the movie and the plot isn't really about building up to that but rather about what Sam does with that information.

Sam Rockwell plays the frazzled everyman character of Sam Bell to a T and carries the movie - Atlas-like - on his shoulders, pretty much single-handedly.

Moon is a beautiful, haunting examination of the human condition, as well as a compelling, intelligent science-fiction thriller from first-time feature film writer/director Duncan Jones (the 38-year-old son of David Bowie).

There are obvious stylistic similarities to 2001: A Space Odyssey not just in the stark, realistic look of the moon base and its operations, but the pairing of a man and a talking computer. However, Gerty is no HAL - in fact almost the total antithesis - and there's nothing trippy or paranormal going on in Sam's world.

For my money this is a far superior film to the rather overrated District 9, and is already - just a week into the year - a contender for my "DVD of The Year".

Sadly, it seems that Sony isn't backing Moon for the Oscars, because it deserves the plaudits, but you can do your bit by signing the online petition to get Rockwell rightly nominated for the Best Actor gong.