Statto's Movie Review Site - Solaris Review.

Premise - Kelvin (George Clooney) is a psychologist getting over the recent death of his wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone). He is called to a space station by a good friend to investigate some strange occurrences. Once onboard he finds most of the crew dead including his friend, the next morning he wakes up to find his dead wife alive and well lying next to him. Just what is going on aboard the space station?

I had high hopes for Solaris, coming as it does from Steven Soderbergh, James Cameron and George Clooney. Soderbergh has been on a run of quality films ever since ‘The Limey’. Cameron hasn’t directed a film since Titanic, but when he’s involved so heavily in a sci-fi project you have to take notice. And Clooney is simply one of the finest actors working in the industry today; he has shook of the ‘hunky doctor from ER’ tag and is legitimately a fine actor. So, how is it that Solaris turns out to be a mind numbing mess of titanic proportions?

For a start Solaris isn’t really a sci-fi film. Yes, it’s set on a space station and yes the whole dead people being resurrected by a planet thing does make it sound like sci-fi, but these things are just tools to let the film tell the real story. That of losing loved ones and having the opportunity to get them back. So, if you’re looking for something along the lines of ‘Aliens’ or ‘The Terminator’ then look elsewhere, this film is not going to be for you.

And that’s the real problem with the film, in trying to not be a sci-fi film in a sci-fi environment the film comes off as being incredibly pretentious. Not only is the film pretentious, but it’s also incredibly boring. Clocking in at 99 minutes long, the film seems about twice as long thanks to long periods of silence, long establishing shots of the space station (we know we’re on a space station, no need to keep showing us) and the many, many flashbacks which flesh out the relationship between Kelvin and Rheya.

The acting in the film is high quality for the most part. I like Clooney, he has a great manner around him and he plays the tortured soul very well. A bit of a departure form his usual roles, but he carries it of nicely. This is his third collaboration with Soderbergh (after ‘Out of Sight’ and ‘Ocean’s 11’) and he seems to do good work with him. Natascha McElhone is pretty good as Clooney’s dead wife, I’ve seen her in a few films and she is a decent actress. Viola Davies plays a crew member on the space station and does a good job at coming across as completely paranoid about everything.

The one cast member which I didn’t like was Jeremy Davies. I have no experience of this guys work and after seeing Solaris I have no wish to see him again. His constant mumbling and stoned act got tiresome VERY quickly. His hands are all over the place and he just rubbed me up the wrong way. I don’t know if he acts this way or if it was the character, but every time he was on screen I was irritated beyond words.

The film also looks the part. Soderbergh films are always a visual treat and Solaris is no exception. The space station is beautifully lit, very dark and brooding. The planet Solaris itself is a wonderful special effect, a mix of colours and gas, it’s hard to explain.

So what you have is a technically well made film with a handful of good performances. However, the pretentious nature of the story, the fact that the film is just plain boring and the irritating Jeremy Davies mean that Solaris is ultimately a failure. I feel that the film’s appeal may be subjective though. The theme of dealing with loss may allow certain people whom have similar issues in real life to connect with the film. I’m just not one of them.