"Clooney's Star Shines Bright in 'Solaris'"
by Scott Mantz

"Solaris"
George Clooney,
Natascha McElhone
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

On the edge of forever! George Clooney is reunited with Natascha McElhone aboard a space station in "Solaris"

You have to give established filmmakers a lot of credit for trying something completely different. Take writer/director Cameron Crowe, who took a major detour from romantic comedy territory with last year's mind-trip "Vanilla Sky," a challenging love-it-or-hate-it love story that confused the hell out of audiences. Earlier that summer, Steven Spielberg's wildly uneven, but still very effective "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" left moviegoers scratching their heads, even though it was hailed by many critics (myself included) as one of his finest achievements.

Well, talk about something completely different, from Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (a filmmaker known for taking chances) and Oscar-winning producer James Cameron (a filmmaker known for being "the King of the World") comes "Solaris," a somewhat pretentious, but still very daring and absorbing sci-fi romance. Though this remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's Russian classic is clearly not for everybody, it is an intensely-paced experiment in existentialism that's sure to please intellectually minded film buffs who like their movies provocative, cerebral and well-acted.

Still haunted by the death of his wife two years ago, psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) is dispatched to a remote space station orbiting the mysterious planet of Solaris to investigate the strange behavior of its crew. Upon his arrival, he finds its commander dead and the remaining scientists exhibiting signs of extreme stress and paranoia. Kelvin also becomes effected when he finds himself miraculously and inexplicably reunited with his dead wife (Natascha McElhone), but is it all some sort of horrible nightmare caused by Solaris, or is Kelvin actually being given the ultimate second chance to correct the mistakes of his past?

The new "Solaris" may be just as cold and impressionistic as the 1972 version (which itself was based on a classic novel), but where that film was a hard pill to swallow with its "2001"-style pacing and a running time of almost 3 hours, this $47 million Hollywood version should be easier to digest with a running time of only 96 minutes. Having said that, it's still a challenge in its own right, and mainstream moviegoers expecting pure entertainment over the festive Thanksgiving holiday weekend are in for a rude awakening.

While the film takes a non-linear approach that's much closer to Soderbergh's sensibilities (a la "Out of Sight" and "The Limey"), the overall effect turns out to be something of a mixed bag. We flash back to see the developing relationship between Kelvin and his wife (something that the original version did not do), but the cold, Kubrickian direction--which is further accentuated by Cliff Martinez’s moody score--is a stark contrast to the sweeping passion that's supposed to give the story its fire. It's also not as complex as it wants to be, and the end result is an uneven, somewhat self-indulgent film that's at war with itself.

On the other hand, George Clooney--teaming up with his "Out of Sight" and "Ocean's Eleven" director for the third time--is an absolute revelation and puts in what is easily his strongest, most dramatic big screen turn to date. His performance may be a stretch for moviegoers not used to seeing him so haunted and pensive, but his tortured soul is further complimented by Natascha McElhone's equally impressive turn as his wife.

In many ways, "Solaris" has a lot in common with the aforementioned "Vanilla Sky." Both are remakes of foreign films, and both are love stories with sci-fi elements to them (although "Vanilla Sky" didn't reveal its sci-fi intentions until the last 20 minutes). More importantly, they are both about the importance of the choices we make rather than the solutions we seek (a point driven home during a dream sequence where Clooney is told "There are no solutions--only choices"), and the main characters in both films are forced to make final decisions that will effect their surprisingly similar fates.

Given Soderbergh's track record ("Erin Brockovich," "Traffic" and "Ocean's Eleven"), and the presence of James Cameron as the film's producer (his first big screen credit since "Titanic" 5 years ago), expectations are bound to be high for "Solaris." Those expectations will only be met if you're looking for a different, challenging, thought-provoking film that will stay with you long after you leave the theater. It may not be for everybody, but Soderbergh and Cameron still deserve a lot of credit for making a sublime art film that will eventually be seen as the minor sci-fi classic that it is.

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