SIFF Review: Moon

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is on the verge of unraveling. Counting down the days until his three-year contract as the lone operator of a moonbase operation mining the new moonrock wonder fuel that has solved Earth's energy, with only a computerized robot (voiced by Kevin Spacey in a dispassionate HAL-9000 tone with just a hint of human concern) for company and pre-recorded messages keeping a tenuous connection to home, he's getting ragged around the edges. But when he wakes up in the infirmary after a bad crash, he's suddenly much more focused, alert, healthy. And soon he's talking to himself, and his other self - whether physical double or desperate vision of a man slowly going mad with isolation - is answering. Essentially a one-man, two character piece, Moon could be an old Twilight Zone episode nurtured into a feature. The industrial environment created by director Duncan Jones references the science fiction future promised in sixties and seventies movies, but it's a little banged up here, the gleaming white gone dull and lived in, the open spaces a little claustrophobic, the video monitor accessed not by voice command but by The Clapper. With a supporting cast consisting of a roaming hydraulic arm and figures on a video screen, Rockwell has to play off himself and does so admirably. He mixes up a believably schizophrenic chemistry that develops into compelling relationship between two men - one in denial, the other embracing the role of a protective big brother seeing himself disintegrate in a surreal reflection - who may be one. The plot is pumped up with corporate conspiracy with undertones of identity theft on a metaphysical scale and a race against the clock, but Jones never rushes the pace. It all plays out in the same static, out-of-time quality that ground Sam into his numb state.

Moon Egyptian, 7 p.m. Tues., May 26. SIFF Cinema, 4:15 p.m. Wed., May 27.