2003's Space Oddity (Solaris [2002] (DVD))

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Solaris [2002] (DVD)
Date:	01/03/03 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A break from the norm, You might think Clooney's bare bum is one

Disadvantages: Might be not what you expected

This is a film with a history. Based on an old Russian sci-fi novel by Stanislaw Lem, and previously filmed in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky, it comes fresh from flopping at the North American box office. This is unusual seeing as it features George Clooney's naked backside, and as it comes from Steven Soderbergh - however as he was behind Erin Brockovich the studios will probably forgive him.

Enough of the background, then, let's begin at the beginning. And ooh look, there isn't one - no credits or even a title page, it's straight into the action, where George Clooney's character Kelvin wanders around slowly, being helpful to people and attending grievance councelling meetings.

Late one evening Kelvin is interrupted by a couple of people from "The Company" (ooer), who make him watch a message from an old friend, who at the time of its sending was orbiting and prospecting a far-off planet called Solaris. The project there is in trouble, and a team of people who were sent out to assist certainly have failed in that goal. Kelvin, for some reason, is given the task of going to find out what's going on.

The next thing we know Kelvin has been put in a craft and taken to Solaris. As he arrives over a very attractive electrical storm, he finds the space station far emptier than he had hoped. Spattered over all the glistening silver decor are large globs of dried blood.

But worry not, this is not something akin to Event Horizon, nor is it indeed a proper science-fiction film. If it were then we would be subject to lots of shots of the hardware in action, space-craft docking phallically and so on. There will be a scene of technical mumbo-jumbo later on, but on the whole this is not a genre film.

Kelvin gets to explore the station, and finds what few inhabitants there are are acting rather strangely. And here we have a problem with the film - Snow (played by Jeremy Davies) is just so odd-ball
with peculiar hand motions, pauses and silly spaced-out turns of phrase, it's hard to like him. Also around is Gordon, played by Viola Davies (another Soderbergh regular, it appears), who is the usual hard-as-nails, black, space-hardened scientist, who has a gutsy image but deep down is more than a little afraid.

And as for the sender of Kelvin's "wish-you-were-here", his post-suicide body is in another blood-spattered room.

Anyway, before we get to ask ourselves why Kelvin doesn't pack this pair up and take off back for Earth, the real mysteries start to begin. Interrupting a dream of home is the sudden arrival of Kelvin's wife, Rheya.

Which is the real bottom-opener for him, as Rheya died several years previous.

Startled, George manages to eject what clearly isn't Rheya into outer space, but what can he do when the following night the same thing happens? Where is this creature (if it is one) coming from? What is it's intentions? Who or what might be visiting the other people on board? And don't forget the dried blood...

As we've found, this is not a genre piece; instead we get a lot of Kelvin and Rheya (played by Natascha McElhone) talking to each other, and engaging in thousand-yard stares. In a break from both book and original film, Soderbergh (who wrote and shot the whole thing as well) has added a back-story to their relationship, so we get to see them on Earth, meeting, marrying, and making love with each other, and problems for each other.

If you remember the noted scene in Out of Sight where we see love-making while hearing the seduction that led up to it, in a way that allowed Soderbergh to save time, and appear artful and unusual, then you will certainly get to recognise the technique here. There are lots of shots of the two, either in the blue and silver spaceship or in their brown and ochre apartment, with flash-backs ahoy and lots of sound leaking f
rom one time to another as they dissect their times together and their current situation.

This "alien" Rheya soon manages to get under Kelvin's skin and sort him out - that is, seeing to his problems, rather than "giving him a good (fatal) seeing to". It becomes clear that Rheya might be some sort of spirit, possibly a ghost, perhaps even an angel?

~ * ~ This paragraph might be best read after seeing Solaris. ~ * ~
As it is, Kelvin's conscience means he has to talk a lot with Rheya and sort a lot out, and the possibility that redemption is forthcoming means a lot to him. Indeed, if memory serves, there was a lot of languid discussion in the original film that Solaris the planet might be God.

~ * ~ Safe now. ~ * ~
On the whole this is a talkative film, even though the actual word-count must be well down on the modern-day average. George Clooney gets to walk around slowly, and talk slowly, and stare moodily (and slowly), and does them all really quite well. His certainly is the best character, as his is by far the most likeable - not even Rheya is particularly appealing. There is contrast between them all, however, with Gordon's gung-ho scientific plan to stop the visitations, for example.

The script and direction are both done very well, if you can bear the continuous merging of past event and internal thought. It all looks very nice, although the wide screen could have been better used, and all Earth shots are internal or close-up ones with blurred backgrounds to avoid having to make it look futuristic. But is the film actually recommended?

Knowing Soderbergh's recent appeal at the box office, and Clooney's crowd-pleasing attributes, there will certainly be a large number of the popcorn brigade filing out of their multi-plexes saying this is the biggest pile of tosh ever, and there are already a number of major slanging-offs on imdb. However, this isn't one of t
hem, and not just because it isn't on imdb.

Theediscerning hasn't read the book, and was probably too young to get much sense out of the original film, but this time round he enjoyed the film as an appealingly different film, and on the whole, really quite good, should one not mind seeing a slow-burning, mature, sort of metaphysical mood piece.

Certainly, this shaves a whole hour from the Tarkovsky version, which was called the Soviet 2001 at the time. And indeed this shares with the Kubrick a similarly 60's-style mystical ending, where Clooney's character is transported mysteriously into somewhere different - whether that be deep space or an inner, mental place.

To discuss the rating, dooyoo's five stars are again inadequate, as theediscerning would like to give it three and a half. However his partner, while neither minding or enjoying the film as a whole, liked it to some extent and would rate it two and a half - hence the average.

(And while we're talking ratings, theediscerning hopes you will be kind enough to crown this - he had to type the bugger in twice, as the first time dooyoo carefully lost it for him. It was a lot better the first time round, too.)

Solaris, then - a film which one has to ponder on just as much as the main character. Hopefully you're now able to spend less time pondering whether to see it or not.

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