SOLARIS - Bitesize Review # 1
Solaris ***½
Format: Original Theatrical Release
What exactly is Solaris? That is the question soon set up in this psychological drama and arguably it is what we are still left pondering at the end credits.
Set in a non-specific but recognisable future, psychiatrist Dr Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) is sent to a space station observing the newly discovered planet known as Solaris. All but two of the crew have either died or disappeared leaving the doctor to try and piece together some sense of what is going on.
The surviving crewmembers offer little in the way of information aside from a fragmented account of the appearance of mysterious ‘visitors’. Chris diagnoses that they are both suffering from acute paranoia brought on by isolation and fatigue. However, soon the doctor himself is confronted with the resurrection of his dead wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone).
What follows is not the romance in space you may have expected. Instead director Steven Soderbergh departs from his recent trio of high profile Hollywood hits Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s 11 to craft a science fiction film similar in spirit to the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Chris reunion with his deceased wife leads him to acknowledge the complexities of their relationship and his own guilt surrounding her passing. Employing his superb visual sense and precise editing, Soderbergh energises a slow methodical film that questions our notions of love, memory and self-determination.
Clooney and McElhone are magnificent as the lovers trying to come to terms with the discrepancy between what is real and what is remembered. The approaching Solaris and its growing influence upon those onboard the space station is all that can be known for certain.
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