Solaris

[Patrick Degan]

Well, I saw the new version of Solaris on opening night, and I have to say that I was impressed by the resulting movie, and I was going in with a high degree of scepticism. Having first seen, and loved, the 1972 original directed by Andre Tartkovsky, I was viewing this new movie with a very critical eye.

But Steven Sodebergh was most suited as director for this movie, given that its themes of love, guilt, and the search for personal redemption resonate with several of his works, and his subtle touch fits well with this story.

A movie which harkens back to the ideas-SF of the 60s and the Less-is-More school of filmmaking, the new Solaris relies upon its plot and philosophy to carry the film. The few FX visuals enhance the story tremendously for their sparing use, particularly of the planet Solaris itself which advances several key points of the plot when the intelligence of the world is interacting with the George Clooney character. Some of the best cinematography focusses upon the characters to illustrate mood; particularly in one shot of Clooney in which the lighting makes his face a literal death-mask.

Shorter than the Tartkovsky film, the new movie nevertheless conveys the soul of Stanislaw Lem's novel, and includes several visual tributes to the original as well as a couple directed toward 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some small details are changed and abbrieviated, but not to a detrimental degree. Also, the movie is nearly technobabble-free.

Sadly, in a time when movie audiences are far more oriented to FX/action spectaculars, Solaris will probably not do very good boxoffice. But it is a beautiful film worth seeing and is a good companion-piece to the Tartkovsky original. I'd say this movie qualifies even over Minority Report as the best SF movie of the year, and it is certainly the only pure SF movie of 2002.

See Solaris.