Are You With Us?: Solaris
By Shalimar Sahota
July 6, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
A distressing video message from good friend and scientist Gibarian (Ulrich Tucker) prompts psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) to visit him on a space station that is orbiting the planet Solaris. Once onboard, Kelvin tries to piece together what has happened by questioning the crewmembers, Dr. Gordon (Viola Davis) and Snow (Jeremy Davis). Only then does the unholiness of Satan's shit really start to hit the 200-mega watt fan, as Kelvin discovers that things are not at all as they seem, with strange "visitors" from the crew's past suddenly... resurrected. Kelvin is shocked to find himself face to face with his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone), since she's actually been dead the last few years.
The understanding is that rather than destroying a classic by doing a standard pointless remake, Soderbergh did his own thing by instead focusing on the relationship between the two main characters. Given the concept, 20th Century Fox had a tough job marketing what's really an arthouse film, and so it released two trailers. One had potential audiences expecting a sci-fi romance, the other a sci-fi thriller. Ultimately both trailers are advertising the same film, which must mean it's a romantic sci-fi thriller, right? At the time of its release, there was a fracas over Soderbergh appealing the MPAA's decision to rate the film R because of two scenes where George Clooney exposes his naked rear end. Clooney revealed that Fox leaked this story to the press because, "they're having trouble selling this film. They don't know what to do with it." If Fox were that desperate, they should have just put said scene in the trailer and superimposed it on the poster with the tagline, "George Clooney's naked ass is in this film."
Similarities to other space sci-fi films are expected, though the best way to sum up Solaris would be as the intellectually grown-up Event Horizon, in that freaky stuff happens onboard a space station. However, the intention here isn't to make people jump. Solaris is a very big, "what if" scenario. What if this weird-looking purple planet you've been sent to study starts studying you instead? What if it has the power to read deep into your thoughts and memories, going so far as to create physical replications of people? Each crew member has their own "visitor", as they are known throughout the film, but what is the purpose of their appearance? And is this even a good thing?
Clooney manages to convey a sense of utter dread and mystery, with Kelvin's first few minutes on board the space station being incredibly unsettling, even more so when he finally makes contact with someone. "I'm fine," he tells Snow, though obviously he doesn't look it. Of all things, Soderbergh has Riddle Box by the Insane Clown Posse playing in the background during this scene, whose lyrics act almost as a precursor to coming events. His meeting with Dr. Gordon is less helpful. "Until it starts happening to you," she says, "there's really no point in discussing it." When it does start happening, Kelvin's reaction to "Visitor Rheya" is astonishing, questioning her as if this has happened to him before.
There are many messages one could take from this, the most obvious being that no matter how many scientific theories, there are some things out there, which simply cannot be explained; they just are. For me, the saying, "be careful what you wish for," comes to mind. When you lose something, you try and replace it with something else. But when you lose someone, then comes the realisation that no one is replaceable... until Solaris comes along. Kelvin seems content to fill the void with "Visitor Rheya", though no matter how strong the resemblance, she is just not the same. Given that it's a situation no one else has been in, for Kelvin it's painful to see him lose someone, but it can be just as painful for that person to come back. With this bizarrely unique thought, Solaris is certainly recommended, but probably more so for those who enjoy W.W. Jacob's The Monkey's Paw (or its variants), or Clamp's Chobits (the relationship between Minoru and Yuzuki parallels Kelvin's and Rheya's). Vice-versa if you're already a fan of this film.
With theoretical explanations as to what is causing the appearance of the visitors but little information as to why, it's essentially left to the viewer to interpret, which may annoy a large majority. This is because the casual film viewer (who most probably isn't reading this) often feels better after having some answers and doesn't want to feel like they've just wasted time on something that they can't make any sense of, like The Matrix sequels, or the location of the G-spot. Ironically, trying to make sense of things is exactly what Kelvin is doing, treating Solaris as if it has a soul, a mind, questioning, "What does it want?" His friend Gibarian says it best. "There are no answers, only choices," which goes some way to explaining the final act.
Solaris opened on Thanksgiving weekend in 2002, with an opening take of $6.7 million. The film made a new entry at number seven, contending with Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (number one in its third week) and Die Another Day (number two in its second week). If 20th Century Fox had taken my advice, then it probably wouldn't have fallen out of the top ten the following week. It took in just $14.9 million during its run. Fox at least gave the film a reasonable DVD release, promoting that producer James Cameron gives "his first commentary for DVD!"
Solaris feels slow, despite being shorter than the original film (94 minutes compared to the original's 165 minutes); however, it's one of those films where although initially it looks like nothing is happening, everything is happening. Soderbergh himself said that anyone that doesn't enjoy the first ten minutes of the film should just give up. Either that's a sign that this isn't for you, or an invitation to absorb a fascinating thought provoker.