In what’s pretty much a one-man show, Rockwell’s superb as an ordinary man counting down the days until his flight home to a wife he misses more with each passing minute and a daughter born just before his shift began. Due to technical problems, he can’t communicate in real-time with anyone, including his loved ones and the people who run the company he works for. The long delay between each space transmission only serves to increase Sam’s feeling of disconnect and loneliness — and the strain’s starting to show. Every day he looks as though his very lifeforce is draining from him and the hallucinations have begun.

Sam’s only company is GERTY (voiced ably by Kevin Spacey), a manservant robot with one of those HAL 9000 voices so calming it chills. GERTY’s generic, yellow-faced emoticons (a throwback to the 70’s, like the film itself) only adds to the machine’s menacing, passive-aggressive lack of humanity, but after crashing a lunar rover into one of the company’s four hulking surface-mining machines (each named after one of the four Gospels), a spooky robot becomes the least of Sam’s problems.

Aided by a confident, visually-gifted director and a tight script that hits all the right emotional turning points, Rockwell delivers a memorable performance worthy of Oscar consideration. Like Tom Hanks in “Castaway,” for long periods of screen time (most of it set in a single claustrophobic location), Rockwell effortlessly holds the screen with a tour de force performance that engages all of your attention and even more of your sympathy.

Reportedly, “Moon” was inspired by the director’s affection for “2001,” “Silent Running” and other films from the 60’s and 70’s that similarly dwelled on space and isolation, and this shows (though I’d argue “Moon” is far superior to “2001″ and “Running,” both of which bore me stiff). But for my money “Moon” is much closer in style, mood and flavor to the best film of 2007, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (which also starred Rockwell), another beautifully realized character study that rooted around the soul to see what constitutes an individual’s humanity, and through elegiac pacing, cast a dream-like spell you never want broken.

But most of all, “Moon” is about the irreplaceable value of the human individual. On the surface – in the text — the bad guys are just another liberal Hollywood trope, but in reality – in the subtext – the villain is a callous, selfish mindset that devalues the individual and marginalizes certain types of human life if the ends justify a cause and a convenience. This is what makes it so distinctive from the films that inspired its creator. Whereas “2001″ refuses to acknowledge humanity and “Silent Running” flaunts a self-satisfied moral superiority, in “Moon” the only thing that matters is Sam — an ordinary working-class guy who loves his family, signs off his transmissions with “Rock-n-roll and God bless America,” and just wants to go home.

Existentialism isn’t easy to pull off, especially for a first time director. But Jones keeps his eye where it belongs, squarely on his central character, one of us, someone we can relate to on first glance. He also doesn’t answer any of his own questions (the key to avoiding pretension) and in the best tradition of the genre, leaves open the possibility that it was all just a terrible dream.

But even if it was, that doesn’t make what happens any less poignant.

Moon rocks the imagination as it presents a totally plausible, realistic way of utilizing space for practical purposes — in this case, mining for eco-desirable Helium 3 energy from the lunar surface.  Jones strove for science-fact over fiction in researching many minute details of the script.  He even screened the film before a panel of NASA scientists — many of whom are working on making fantasy into fact. 

Before reading any further — be advised: don’t see Moon to learn about science, but DO see it! It’s a fascinating film featuring an Academy Award-worthy performance by Sam Rockwell. 

Now, back to reality… In 2004, President George W. Bush called for a return to the Moon to build a base — it would be a prelude to something even greater: a mission to Mars.  He noted words from astronaut Eugene Cernan, who traveled with the last Apollo mission: “We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” With that, scores of engineers, scientists and experts made headway designing, building and planning America’s next endeavour to explore space, they were ready to accomplish the mission. 

Should President Obama decide to continue with the 2004 Bush plan, enterprising Americans would need to invent many of the things featured in Jones’ film.  And for Obama, who is presiding over one of the worst economic crisis in history, an invigorating Kennedy-esque call to space would present a granddaddy of a stimulus package — jobs created, factories built, innovation; to say nothing of stimulating the truly priceless things like learning, inspiring a generation and advancing the species. 

But don’t pack your moon boots quite yet – Obama has organized a committee to review the entire space program and make recommendations sometime in August. He has left many to guess his agenda for America’s space program.  What would have happened if Columbus or Magellan stood around waiting for a group of consultants to return findings?  Thank goodness President Kennedy didn’t wait to hear committee recommendations of his idea — we would have never made it to the Moon.  So, we’re left to wait — along with the rest of NASA — while this committee discusses, studies and contemplates.  Call it the community organizer’s guide to the galaxy …  it just might get us going nowhere fast. 

Moon writer-director Jones is a self-described sci-fi nut having been inspired as a child by great films such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and Ridley Scott’s Alien.  Those films, like many other 60’s, 70’s and 80’s sci-fi fare, helped feed the world’s growing appetite for all things space — I know, because my younger brother and I grew up in the Lucas/Spielberg-golden age of sci-fi.  With the 1969 Moon landing, and the Apollo missions thereafter, a huge milestone was met, and imaginations exploded — people wanted to learn what else could be ‘out there?’ How could we travel into space in the future? What would life in space be like? 

Moon portrays the same questions NASA faces building a moon base, or traveling to Mars — loneliness, mental stamina, human endurance.  To say nothing of imagining real-life possibilities such as fusion power, mining for clean energy and living in artificial environments (as well as some truly mind-blowing plot twists). 

It should come as little surprise that Jones thought up this film.  After all, he is the son of David Bowie — the man who gave us “Space Oddity” and Ziggy Stardust.  Bowie was fascinated by humans landing on the Moon and translated that into brilliant art and music.  Come to think of it, without the Moonshot, we never would have Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” cell phones, microwave ovens — or juice bags for the kids!  The demonstration of American grit and ingenuity instilled the nation with pride, confidence and solidified American technology and willpower as the envy of the world.  We could use a little bit of all that right about now… 

So, what will it be President Obama: One giant leap… forward or backward?