Solaris Review
by Tim Wick
When one contemplates weather they should use my review as a basis for viewing Solaris, they should consider a few things first. First, I am supportive of any films that take chances, stretch boundaries or try to put it's audience outside their comfort zone. Second, I am a great admirer of Stanley Kubrick's films.
Solaris most certainly takes chances and is clearly influenced by Kubrick - most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey. These facts greatly increased the odds that I would like the film.
And like the film I most certainly do. But in saying so, I acknowledge that many will not like the film. I would like the think that most would appreciate the movie for what it is doing even as they decide that it simply does not connect with them.
The most common criticisms I've heard from others are that the movie does not make an emotional connection and that it is tedious, pedantic and boring.
I agree with the frist criticism although I believe that lack of emotional connection is by design. I cannot understand the second. True the film has a languid pace but I never felt it was boring.
Instead, I think the movie has captivating visuals and a wonderfully vague storyline that reminded me a little of Mulholland Drive.
It may seem like I'm apologizing for enjoying the movie but that is not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to point out that this film was made with a specific audience in mind. I happen to be a member of that audience but I am well aware that many others are not. You need to be cognizent of what kind of movies you like before you decide to see Solaris.
But if you like thoughtful science fiction, the kind that they made before Star Wars and the kind they have aspired to in such films as Gattaca, A.I. and Minority Report, then you need to give this film a try.
The pedigree for the film is remarkable. Produced by James Cameron. Written and Directed by Stephen Soderbergh. Starring George Clooney. If nothing else, you are guaranteed a film of artistic integrity and ambition with a darn talented lead actor.
Clooney does a fine job in the lead. I am constantly amazed by his variety of roles as he rarely follows up a role with another one quite the same. The only think that his characters have in common is Clooney's fine ability to underplay the role. His acting feels very natural and relaxed. He doesn't so much play characters as inhabit them. In a movie where a great deal of the story is subtext, he sells his characters emotions on almost every level.
The film is Clooney's to sell. Natascha McElhone has a pivotal role as his wife but the camera spends most of it's time focused on Clooney and his reactions to her. It is his movie and he owns it.
Much like Clooney, Soderbergh is something of a chameleon. He came off his Oscar winning direction of Traffic to direct Oceans's Elven, the disaterous Full Frontal and now Solaris. If these films have anything in common, it is Soderburgh's obsession with human emotion and perception. In fact, that is the underlying theme of Solaris.
While the premise is certainly based in science fiction, the film is anything but a traditional science fiction story. The focus is on the question of love and how much of who we love is based on our perception of the individual in question. If someone looks like the person we love and is just like the person we remember but doesn't have all those parts that we never really knew about or understood, is it the same person?
Soderbergh has explored this world of the percieved individual before. Certainly that is a central theme of his breakthrough film Sex, Lies and Videotape. In Solaris this theme becomes literal. It would be wrong to describe how but the underlying story is certainly compelling and there are issues of morality that are only barely touched upon.
For Soderbergh, who not only wrote and directed the film but was the cinematographer and editor as well, this film is immensely personal. The camera work and the story itself are slow and languid. The revalations are vague and perhaps even disappointing. The answers, it would seem, are not nearly as compelling as the questions. So he provides us with many more questions than he can possibly provide answers.
While I appreciate the film on just about every level, I didn't quite love it and my reasons fly in the face of the most common criticism's about the film. I honestly think the film was in too much of a hurry. I specifically recall a preview scene I saw at the San Diego Comic Con that was much longer when I saw it there. There was a sense of foreboding and dread that was absent in the shorter final cut. I saw any number of other moments that seemed to be trimmed further than they should have been.
Soderbergh had the courage to slow down the pace of the film and was obviously inspired by Kubrick in this regard. But he was not quite able to go all the way and felt the need to pull back just a little. If anything, it was this choice that makes the movie fall just short of greatness in my mind.
I love movies that take risks. I love movies that are personal. I love movies that don't feel they need to leave you with all the answers. I love movies that don't really seem to care if you like them or not - only if you watch them and discuss them. I love movies that take their time. Solaris is all of these things and while it may not quite take every risk I could hope for - it certainly goes farther than most of the movies I've seen recently.
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