| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Solaris (2002) |
| Director | Steven Soderbergh |
| Writer | Steven Soderbergh (screenplay), based on the novel by Stanisław Lem |
| Lead Actor | George Clooney |
| Cast | George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Viola Davis, Jeremy Davies, Ulrich Tukur |
| Genre | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi |
| Release Date | November 27, 2002 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 39m (99 min) |
| Budget | $47 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.2/10 |
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SOLARIS is a posthumous love story in a space station hovering near a strange planet, in which a lonely widower (George Clooney) and his wife (Nastascha McElhone) are apparently reunited for a second chance. Getting to this conclusion, however, is murky business. Both interpretation and appreciation depend on what you bring in terms of patience and ultimate views of life’s meaning.
Clooney’s Chris Kelvin is a psychiatrist (a “nihilist shrink”) specializing in grief counseling. He’s called to salvage a crisis in which it seems each of the crew has had (and reacted differently to) a mysterious and catastrophic visitation. Kelvin’s turns out to be his dead wife, who is both beloved and estranged. (She aborted their child.) Is she real, clone, illusion, friend or menace? She’s a challenge to his rationalism. Does he escape, or stay with her and seize the opportunity to undo past mistakes?
Solaris is slow, subtle and indirect to a fault, but tightened to a merciful 99 minutes by Steven Soderbergh, writer-director, editor and cameraman (Traffic, Erin Brockovich).
Maybe it’s a well disguised metaphor for scientists confronting the surprise of immortality or whether love has power over death. These ideas lingered in the Christian mysticism of the lengthy original, Soviet defying 1972 movie by the gifted Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. Both Solaris films are based on a more enigmatic sci-fi novel by the widely revered Polish author Stanislaw Lem. Somewhat cold and puzzling, confronting big questions with an ambiguous mix of gloom and optimism; adult content; satisfactory for mature viewers.
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