New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Between the great Ocean's Eleven and the mistake Ocean's Twelve, director Steven Soderbergh directed two films. One was the experimental Full Frontal, the other was a remake, and itself based on a Stanislaw Lem novel, Solaris.

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.

Continued:       1       2