Our Moon is approximately 238,857 miles away. That is the distance you would travel if you walked across Ann Arbor 71,657 times, or ran across the equator ten times. That is the distance separating Sam Bell from anyone else.

Sam (Sam Rockwell) is the sole crew member of the mining facility Sarang,  located on the titular Moon. All of the rooms are painted blinding white, the first of many, many references to “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He is approaching the final days of his three-year contract, a length that has taken hold of Sam’s mind and body, eating away everything except his hope of seeing his wife and daughter again.

It is almost taunting how much Sam isn’t needed in Sarang; the actual mining and processing is carried out by robots. The machines are extracting an isotope called Helium-3 from the Moon’s regolith, which provides clean energy to Earth’s population. Sam is essentially a glorified janitor: He repairs any faults that may appear and records video logs of his work everyday, to be sent back to Lunar Industries on Earth. The station is supervised by GERTY (Voice of Kevin Spacey), a sort of friendly, helpful version of HAL 9000. GERTY is the only other voice in Sarang, the only voice keeping Sam’s mind from shriveling up. A communications fault limits Sam’s correspondence with Earth to intermittent video messages. Fixing the fault is “not a high priority” for Lunar Industries.

“Moon” is a sci-fi movie, but it avoids many of the pitfalls that plenty of recent sci-fi movies have tripped over. There are no starship battles nor aliens. Instead, director Duncan Jones uses the outer space setting and advanced technology to augment the story, and brings it to levels unattainable if “Moon” were set on Earth. What could be lonelier than being the only person on the moon, surrounded by robots that may talk but cannot really think or feel? For that matter, what sort of company is Lunar Industries, keeping a man out of contact with the world for so long?

“Moon” was written as a vehicle for Sam Rockwell, and not without good reason. He makes Sam Bell likable, if not more than a bit pathetic. Rockwell uses every opportunity he can to give Bell some quirk. When Bell waters the plants growing in the station (and presumably providing its oxygen), he talks to them with such childlike sweetness and love that we empathize with him even more when he realizes he may be losing his mind. Rockwell fills “Moon” with moments like these. Sam’s misery and desperation become our own.

For whatever reason, Sony Pictures Classics has decided not to send out screeners of the film to Academy members, which means the chances this movie will get nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, or any Oscar are slim to none. This is a huge mistake. “Moon” is the best movie of 2009 that no one saw. It’s beautiful, stirring, powerful stuff.

“Moon” is now available on DVD and Blu-ray. Watch the trailer at sonypictures.com.