The set-up for the story in the film Moon is rather straight forward. Clean fusion power is available on Earth due to perfecting a fusion process using Helium-3. The He-3 is mined on the moon by automated harvesters which are monitored on station by a single astronaut. Sam Rockwell plays astronaut Sam Bell who is just completing his contract defined three-year tour of duty on the lunar mining station.
Sam’s situation is complexed by a long malfunctioning communications satellite that requires are message traffic to go to Earth via Jupiter so he can have no real-time conversations with anyone other than the base’s AI computer, Gerty. (Voice by another talented actor Kevin Spacey.) Sam’s marriage is sinking due to his long absence and now with his tour nearly over Sam has begun to see things.
If you watch the preview then you already know that things take a turn for the stranger after Sam Has an accident and wakes up in the base hospital with an extra Sam Bell running around the place.
The film is essentially a one-person character study and while the science of the film has a few holes it gets a lot more right in the science-department than 95% of SF films. Of course this isn’t an action SF film and is a much slower movie, more on the line of Solaris than Star Trek.
The movie only partially worked for me and it worked primarily because Sam Rockwell is such a talent and diverse actor. The central mystery of the plot was poorly handled though I cannot speak to that here without presenting spoilers.
Over all It really wasn’t worth full price of admission and I would suggest if you want to see this film in the theaters do not pay more than a bargain price or better yet wait for Home Video.