*** (out of ****)
Starring George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis, and Ulrich Tukur
Directed & written for the screen by Steven Soderbergh, from the novel by Stanislaw Lem
2002 PG13
A good remake doesn’t just update a story by moving it to a new location, or by translating it into English. A good remake either rethinks some or all of the original material, or it doesn’t need to exist at all. Steven Soderbergh’s “Solaris” is the second film to be made from Polish author Stanislaw Lem’s novel, after Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 version. It succeeds in part because it is not a dead copy of the film that has gone before it, but because it is willing to enlarge some elements of the story and shrink others.
Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” is a long film, of great scope, touching on technology, evolution, man’s thirst for knowledge and God, and even a little politics. Soderbergh’s “Solaris,” like many American films, has a smaller, more concentrated intent, and focuses more on a single interpersonal relationship. Because of this austerity, and the starkness with which Soderbergh has decided to tell his story, those familiar with the book and the Tarkovsky film will notice missing elements. Kelvin’s troubled relationship with his parents is gone; gone is the time differential between Earth and the planet Solaris, which means that Kelvin’s parents will have died of old age before he returns; gone are the implications of the Ocean, which on Earth is where life began, and which on Solaris is a giant, primordial intelligence. What’s left, which Soderbergh has put under the microscope, is Kelvin’s meditation on his relationship with his late wife, who has been seemingly brought back to life on a far-off world.
Trouble is brewing on the research vessel orbiting the distant planet Solaris. Sent to assess the situation is psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney), and what he finds are two deeply freaked-out scientists (Jeremy Davies and Viola Davis). What he also finds are strange figures roaming the ship. They’re real, but they’re not real: entities created by Solaris to replicate figures from the scientists’ pasts. Soon they are joined by Kelvin’s late wife (Natascha McElhone of “Ronin”). But she’s not really his wife. She’s what Kelvin remembers and thinks about his wife. She’s not a complete person, and she begins to be troubled by gaps in her memories, in her opinions and thoughts. What is being examined here is that Kelvin’s wife and the wife of Kelvin’s mind are not one in the same, that the memories he’s been carrying since her death seem inaccurate now that they have come to life. Davies is ambivalent toward the situation, while Davis reacts to the beings with hostility and fear. She tells Kelvin, “there are no answers, only choices.”
Director Soderbergh, who won the Oscar in 2000 for his drug war epic “Traffic,” includes plenty of flashbacks, but is wisely not very specific about the terrestrial relationship of Clooney and McElhone. Most of what Clooney remembers are the looks, the glances, the pauses and silences, as well as several very intimate moments; his performance is one of restraint and introversion, as is McElhone’s. “Solaris” uses the deep, rich colors for which celluloid has become famous, and the cold, metallic blues of the sterile spaceship provide a striking contrast to the warm reds, oranges, and browns which frequent Clooney’s memories. Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” “Out of Sight,” and “Erin Brockovich” are the slick and professional work of an expert visual craftsman, and “Solaris” is no different; its technical credits include a brilliantly concieved alien world, of blues and purples, with a surface that is both volcanic and tranquil. The film is atmospheric, creepy, and pensive, although not as much as Tarkovsky’s version.
In my review of the 1972 “Solaris” I make continual references to the 1968 masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey.” With Soderbergh’s “Solaris,” I will make only one: “2001” was the first science-fiction film from director Stanley Kubrick. Rare is the filmmaker who can throw himself into all different genres and do them all well, but Kubrick could, with science-fiction (“2001,” “A Clockwork Orange”), war (“Full Metal Jacket,” “Paths of Glory,” “Dr. Strangelove”), period drama (“Barry Lyndon”), romantic comedy (“Lolita”), horror (“The Shining”), and surrealism (“Eyes Wide Shut”). Soderbergh, who has mostly directed in the present day, has tried to follow Kubrick’s steps with “Solaris;” it is not a perfect movie, and some, though not me, will be bothered by its starkness and deliberate pace. But it is a meaningful picture. Soderbergh has not made a mechanical formula movie, but one as carefully constructed as any of his other films.
Finished December 1, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Friday & Saturday Night