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Solaris (2002)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

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5 reviews

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From Time Out Film Guide

Hazarding another movie inspired by Stanislav Lem's novel might seem folly when Tarkovsky's 1972 version still boasts cult appeal, but Soderbergh's movie beats its predecessor in virtually every respect. It's not only richer and more rigorous, philosophically, than the Russian's woolly musings, it also has an emotional force barely there in Tarkovsky. More significantly, it's probably the finest, certainly the most stylish, sci-fi film in years. Clooney and McElhone are both immensely impressive. He's a psychotherapist Chris Kelvin, sent to the Prometheus space station to investigate strange, sinister occurrences; she's his wife Rheya, dead for years but now rejoining him, as if drawn by his guilty memories, while he and two surviving, possibly crazy crew members orbit the mysterious planet Solaris. Soderbergh uses this story to trace tangled links between time, memory, desire, fear and freedom of will, even as these connecxtions are complicated by the fact that Rheya is a sentient copy of herself. Scripted, shot, directed and edited by Soderbergh with his customary intelligence and assurance, this is perhaps the most ambiguous and cerebrally sophisticated Hollywood movie in nearly three decades.

Author: GA

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

Rich said...

Posted on Aug 13 2008 19:30 It seems to be one of the despairing signs of our times that contemporary motion pictures are generally viewed only in relation to their predecessors. It has become increasingly difficult to see beyond the intertextual implications of what has gone before and in my opinion this solely what undermines this film. On its own merit this film is great existential work and to reduce it to mere love story seems unfair. The atmosphere generated by the aesthetics in conjunction with the soundtrack is stunning. An underrated movie.

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James M. Vereen said...

Posted on Jun 02 2008 20:07 I honestly believe Soderburgh's picture is fantabolous. I like the fact that rather than mimicing the choices that Tarkovsky made, he Interpreted the book with a modern bent with visual references from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Shining (1980), and from Tarkovsky's Zerkalo (The Mirror). To compare it to a cult fav is tough but lets be fair this is one of the better angels of hollywood film making.

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Alex said...

Posted on Apr 19 2008 16:22 I hope that you realize that by writing something like that, you're only commenting on your own inability to grasp the full power of the original Tarkovsky's film. Soderbergh's Solaris is a weak and pathetic attempt at imitating that great masterpiece. Pseudo-philosophical, heavily Hollywood-ized, and completely idiotic, it completely misses the point of not only the movie, but even of the book. One may argue that Tarkovsky reinterpreted the original novel to fit his own view, and that Soderbergh was making his shi... movie from the book. But even the book is different in its philosophical sense.
So, yes, if you want to watch a Hollywood movie about love in space, this is great. But please don't offend true art by labeling this as such.

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Tim said...

Posted on Mar 17 2008 12:20 I agree with both postings. I saw it a while back and was then frustrated and confused by the decision Chris made at the end. Having seen it again, I feel the opposite. Anyway, the music is great and so is Jeremy Davies.

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idiophone said...

Posted on Oct 19 2007 20:43 I absoutely agree. I knew there was more to this film than I got after my first viewing. Sure enough, the rewards of repeat viewings and analysis are rich indeed.

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