Sam Rockwell plays ‘Beaten Up’ really well again in Zowie Bowie’s film directing debut

I first saw Sam Rockwell in a film called ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ – a film my friend Matt introduced me to. It was a film directed by George Clooney about Chuck Barris(played by Rockwell), an average comic who famously invented the Gong Show and was suspected of working for the CIA. Sam Rockwell was superb as Barris, a man whose accelerated fame and predictable fall from grace was part comic and part tragic. Sam Rockwell’s ability to play Barris as a schizophrenic, womanising misfit called on all of Sam’s deep and comic acting abilities. I wouldn’t have said he had a dangerous mind but he did give us an insight into how Rockwell’s, if not Barris’ mind, works.

Equally, playing another Sam, this time in Moon (Rockwell’s latest role), we get another insight into what’s going on in his head. He gets to play a contractor on a lonely moon base whose coming to the end of his solitary 3 year contract. Sam has a tall order in getting over to the audience the feelings of a man who has been away from his young family for three years without anybody to communicate with other than an unsophisticated robot called Gerty. But it says something of the charisma of the man that he carries it off without losing the audience’s attention.

Human interaction does enter into the plot further on in the film and without giving too much away, it’s a clever method for showing several sides of the man’s talent without increasing the acting budget if you get my meaning. It’s also a good vehicle for showing how well Sam Rockwell plays a beaten up, knocked about, downtrodden, world weary person. He did it in Confessions and he does it equally well in here especially in the shot of him puking up blood and teeth into the stainless steel bowl of one of the moon bases’ lavatories.

A special mention must be given to the robot Gerty who made me laugh a couple of times. Gerty is voiced by Kevin Spacey in a typically dry, cynical style. Apart from the tone in Gerty’s voice, the only way we are made aware of how Gerty is feeling is by the animated smiley face on his shoulder which represents his mood. Being a subservient robot to the only human on the station, he has a very limited range of emotions which are mainly negative. These are represented by a smile (sometimes with teeth), an animated look of worry which uses a frown and diagonal mouth to good effect and a look of puzzlement which is a real rabbit in the headlights look. It’s a neat little trick and works to good effect.

Sam Rockwell also had a part in the recent Jesse James film with Brad Pitt and, although it was only a small part, he stood out in an average film with a very strong supporting cast.

Apart from the excellent performance by Sam Rockwell, Moon is a very good film directed by David Bowie’s son. Go see it.