Solaris (Soderbergh)
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Film Description
Soderbergh's version of Lem's story is both straightforward and controlled and is well worth watching both by those who wish to compare it with Tarkovsky's earlier film, and those who just wish to see a fine piece of thoughtful science fiction. Psychologist Chris Kelvin, mourning the loss of his beloved wife, is instructed to travel to a distant space station in order to treat a group of traumatised astronauts.
Film Information
DVD Extras
Commentary by Producer James Cameron & Steve Soderbergh; Behind-the-scenes; ?Solaris - Behind the Planet? feature; Script
Technical Details
| Certificate |
12 |
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Length |
94 mins
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Label |
20CFX |
| Cat No |
24283DVD |
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Format |
DVD |
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Colour |
| Region | 2 |
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Aspect |
Widescreen |
2 Stills
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Review by prudence eely bond mcguire
on 4th August 2003
Solaris is the latest in a long line of brilliant foreign films, that have been given the dubious honour of a Hollywood makeover. With the exception of 'Vanilla Sky', albeit, even that film was simplified for american audiences, the remakes have all fallen short of the mark.
The original russian version of 'Solaris', is a powerful anti war study that dissects man's inhumanity to man. 'Solaris', mark two, is a cop-out love story. The irony of this, is that, one of the characters on the space ship, derides Clooney with the jibe that all he has done since his arrival, is dream of his wife and has contributed nothing to the day to day life on the space ship. Exactly!
The main trouble with nearly every film now being made in America is they are all, with few exceptions, star power driven. The brilliant european films are story driven.
Let us hope the inmates do not take over the asylum in Europe too!
View more reviews by prudence eely bond mcguire
Review by Mike McCahill
on 3rd June 2003
Remaking Tarkovsky, Steven Soderbergh has psychiatrist George Clooney sent to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris in order to investigate a multitude of weird happenings. There, he discovers a pair of fraught scientists, dead bodies, and a vision of dead wife Natascha McElhone appearing whenever he can bring himself to get to sleep.
Soderbergh films often deal in fragmentation, thematically and stylistically concerning themselves with crack-ups and break-ups. Solaris devotes relatively little time to business on board the space station, and an unusual amount more on a succession of dreams and flashbacks that chart the Clooney-McElhone relationship. The results are truly mysterious, but the betrayals and dramas here would make as much sense played out in the present day on Earth as they do against the futuristic backdrop of the heavens.
Technically, the film is faultless. It has the best sci-fi production design since Cube, a gorgeous, shimmering Cliff Martinez score, and remarkable use of ambient sound: the drone of an air conditioning unit has never before been so apparent on film. McElhone, whose sad-soulful eyes were just two of the circles around which The Truman Show revolved, now brings to the female lead a spooky, supernatural beauty which changes everything around it. Not least Clooney’s role in proceedings: for once, an actor who’s always seemed smug to his detractors and merely self-assured to his fans finds himself no longer the most attractive person on screen. He’s simply never been this alone on screen before, never so isolated in the frame: this, we must remember, is a man who first emerged from the chaos of e.r., worked his way up wooing Hollywood’s A-list leading ladies, and was most recently seen on screen alongside at least ten others in Ocean’s 11.
Compared to Soderbergh, no other director currently working appears to know how people fall in love; compared to Soderbergh, no-one else knows how a couple can fall apart. As a consequence, Solaris manages the neat trick of being both romantic and melancholic, unfathomable and comprehensible at the same time, provoking all manner of contradictory responses. A work of elegant precision, it made me cry and left me cold; I finished with ice on my cheeks, and there are very few recent American pictures which can claim that distinction.
View more reviews by Mike McCahill
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