Solaris (2002 film)

For other uses, see Solaris.

Solaris
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay by	Steven Soderbergh
Produced by	James Cameron Jon Landau Rae Sanchini
Starring	George Clooney Natascha McElhone Viola Davis Jeremy Davies Ulrich Tukur
Cinematography	Peter Andrews
Edited by	Mary Ann Bernard
Music by	Cliff Martinez
Production company	Lightstorm Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	November 29, 2002 (2002-11-29) (US)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$47,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$30,002,758 (worldwide)

Solaris is a 2002 science fiction film and psychological drama directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. It is based on the science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem, which also inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's critically acclaimed 1972 film of the same name and a 1968 Soviet TV film.

Borrowing heavily from Tarkovsky's film, Soderbergh's version is a meditative psychodrama set almost entirely on a space station orbiting Solaris, adding flashbacks to the previous experiences of its main characters on Earth. Chris (Clooney) struggles with the questions of Solaris' motivation, his beliefs and memories, and reconciling what was lost with an opportunity for a second chance.

Plot

Clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) is approached by emissaries for DBA, a corporation operating a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, who relay a message sent from his scientist friend Dr. Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur). Gibarian requests Chris come to the station to help understand an unusual phenomenon, but is unwilling to explain the exact nature. DBA is unsure how to proceed, as the mission to study Solaris has been sidetracked and none of the astronauts want to return home. In addition, DBA has lost contact with the security patrol recently dispatched to the station. Chris agrees to a solo mission to go to Solaris as a last attempt to recover the crew.

Upon arriving at the space station, Chris learns that Gibarian has committed suicide and most of the crew have either died or disappeared under bizarre circumstances. Both surviving crew members, Snow (Jeremy Davies) and Dr. Gordon (Viola Davis), are reluctant to explain the situation at hand. Alone in his crew quarters, Chris dreams about his dead wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone)—reliving when they first met and some of their most romantic and intimate moments. He awakens shocked and terrified to encounter Rheya alive again beside him in bed and leads her into an escape pod and jettisons it into space. Chris confides his actions to Snow and comes to understand that replicas of the crew's loved ones have been mysteriously appearing. When Rheya manifests a second time Chris lets her stay, but she admits she doesn't feel human; her memories feel artificial, in that she lacks the emotional attachment that comes with actually having lived them.

Chris, Rheya, Snow and Gordon meet to discuss the situation and Gordon informs Rheya what Chris did to her previous replica. Rheya leaves the meeting horrified and Chris confronts Gordon, who in turn chastises him for getting emotionally involved with something that isn't real and may pose a threat to human beings. Later, during a dream, Chris questions a replica of Gibarian as to what Solaris' motives are for providing the manifestations, but is told "there are no answers, only choices." Chris wakes to find Rheya dead, having committed suicide by drinking liquid oxygen and, in front of Gordon and Snow, Chris wills her back to a restored state. Gordon reveals that she has an apparatus which can permanently destroy a replica but Chris objects to using it on Rheya. He begins ingesting a chemical stimulant to stay awake in order to monitor Rheya. Chris eventually falls asleep and Rheya approaches Gordon who destroys her with the apparatus as she has done for all replicas who have requested her to do so. Chris confronts Gordon who maintains she merely facilitated in assisted suicide and in her xenophobia she only wants the preservation of the humans.

Chris and Gordon then discover the body of Snow stashed away in a ceiling vent and realize that the Snow they have been interacting with is a replica. Snow admits to being a replica and explains that upon being dreamed into existence, he was attacked by his creator and thus killed the 'original Snow' in self-defense. The Snow replica tells them that repeat usage of the apparatus has drained the ship's fuel cell reactor, making a return trip to Earth impossible. Furthermore, Solaris has reacted to the behavior of the humans by increasing its mass, thereby gravitationally pulling the space station toward the planet. Gordon and Chris begin prepping a smaller space vehicle called Athena to escape.

Chris is shown pondering his experiences from the space station back on Earth, discontentedly concluding that the reason Rheya's replica wanted to die was because he "remembered her wrong"—as suicidal. One day he cuts his finger while chopping vegetables in his kitchen, but the wound immediately regenerates, just as Rheya's replica once did. Then Rheya appears, declaring that they transcend life and death and that all they've done to each other is forgiven. This suggests that Chris isn't really on Earth, or that what's on Earth isn't really Chris. Chris never actually leaves the space station with Gordon: he sends her off alone and stays behind to plummet into Solaris.

Cast

• George Clooney as Chris Kelvin
• Natascha McElhone as Rheya
• Viola Davis as Gordon
• Jeremy Davies as Snow
• Ulrich Tukur as Gibarian
• John Cho as DBA Emissary #1

Reception

Director Steven Soderbergh noted that marketing the film was a challenge. The film's trailer depicted a science fiction love story (or thriller) that may have raised expectations among potential film-goers that were not met. The film grossed $14,973,382 at the North American box office and $15,029,376 in other territories, against an estimated $47 million budget.

Critical reception was mixed to positive. The Time Out Film Guide describes the film as superior to the Tarkovsky version. The film was a New York Times Critics' Pick, with Stephen Holden saying "the movie aspires to fuse the mystical intellectual gamesmanship of 2001: A Space Odyssey with the love-beyond-the-grave romantic schmaltz of Titanic, without losing its cool...a tricky balancing act that doesn't quite come off." As Holden notes, "Solaris is a science-fiction film lacking action-adventure sequences. The absence of boyish friskiness, kineticism and pyrotechnics makes it a film that offers no vicarious physical release. Its insistence on remaining cerebral and somber to the end may be a sign of integrity, but it should cost it dearly at the box office." Roger Ebert gave the film (3½ out of four stars) and called it "the kind of smart film that has people arguing about it on their way out of the theater"; while it "needs science fiction to supply the planet and the space station, which furnish the premise and concentrate the action,... it is essentially a psychological drama." Ebert concludes "When I saw Tarkovsky's original film, I felt absorbed in it, as if it were a sponge. It was slow, mysterious, confusing, and I have never forgotten it. Soderbergh's version is more clean and spare, more easily readable, but it pays full attention to the ideas and doesn't compromise. Tarkovsky was a genius, but one who demanded great patience from his audience as he ponderously marched toward his goals. The Soderbergh version is like the same story freed from the weight of Tarkovsky's solemnity. And it evokes one of the rarest of movie emotions, ironic regret."

With 132 "fresh" reviews among 202 critics, Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 65% fresh rating,, while Tarkovsky's adaptation received 43 "fresh" reviews among 45 critics, a 97% fresh rating.

Soderbergh "said that he didn't intend Solaris to be a remake of Tarkovsky's film but rather a new version of Stanislaw Lem's novel"; Lem called Soderbergh's film a "remake of the Tarkovsky movie" and criticized it as departing far from his original intentions in writing the novel by focusing almost exclusively on the psychological relationship between the two main characters, while reducing the vast and alien ocean to a mere "mirror" of humanity:

As Solaris' author I shall allow myself to repeat that I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images. This is why the book was entitled Solaris and not Love in Outer Space.

In 2010, Solaris made Time magazine's "Top 10 Hollywood Remakes" list, saying it was "expertly and exquisitely executed" and "manages to extract that all too rare achievement from a sci-fi film: emotion.

External links

• Solaris at IMDb
• Solaris at AllMovie
• Solaris at Rotten Tomatoes
• Comment on Soderbergh's version from Stanisław Lem's official website
• Graphic design for Solaris from graphic artist Rick Sternbach's website