Solaris (2002)
Originally Written: November 2002
I’ll go ahead and say it now- if you choose to see Steven Soderbergh’s “Solaris,” most of you will NOT like it. How do I know this? Because my mother hated it, and the film has become a moviegoer’s abommonation the likes of which my theater has likely ever seen, with audience members leaving in mass Exodus demanding refunds and wishing they’d seen something else. My B+ puts me in the extreme minority regarding the movie, adapted from Stanislaw Lem’s novel, previously the basis for the art-house film of the same name by Russian visionary Andrei Tarkovsky (newly released on DVD courtesy The Criterion Collection, and an A film in my book). First off on Soderbergh’s film, allow me to concede- it IS the longer 100 minute film you’re likely to ever see. Soderbergh pays homage to Tarkovsky’s tendency for long, methodical shots and silence over dialogue, and to be frank, it doesn’t work for Soderbergh…all the time. There are moments the visual wonders of Soderbergh’s “Solaris”- courtesy of Soderbergh’s cinematography and the excellent visual effects of Cinesite Entertainment- will inspire an awe rivaled by sci-fi masterworks “2001” and “A.I.”. And the score by Soderbergh regular Cliff Martinez (“Traffic,” “King of the Hill”) is a spellbinder and one of the year’s best. Unlike Tarkovsky’s film, which was intellectual and focusing more on the science fiction aspect of the story (about a psychologist sent up to a space station orbiting the mystical planet of Solaris when two crew members end up dead, and the remaining crew is plagued by hallucinations created by Solaris), Soderbergh- who also wrote the script- focuses his film- also intellectual in it’s own right- on the interaction and past relationship between the psychologist (George Clooney) and the vision of his deceased wife (Natascha McElhone). But don’t confuse this for “Titanic” in space, even though James Cameron produces. It’s really a probing of issues regarding letting go of the past, and how our memories of loved ones who have passed on may not do them justice in how they were in life. Much has been made of Clooney’s bare ass threatening an R on “Solaris”; this isn’t “Last Tango in Paris,” folks, although I will say that when Soderbergh likened “Solaris” to a combination of “2001” and “Last Tango in Paris,” he wasn’t kidding- it’s as befuddling as “2001,” as immersed in doomed, tragic romance as “Paris.” But hand this to Soderbergh- love it or hate it, you’ll never forget you saw it, even if you want to.
