Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002

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"There are no answers here; only choices". Ooh, dude, too bad you didn't tell me that before I went to see Solaris ... THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) Responding to a distress call from his friend Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur), who is part of a team doing a routine study of the strange water planet called Solaris, psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) sets out to discover what's wrong. By the time he reaches the station, there are only two team members left: Snow (Jeremy Davies), a man who appears to have all but lost his mind, and Dr. Helen Gordon (Viola Davis), a physicist so shook by the unspecified Something Wrong, that she refuses to leave her quarters, and has developed any number of dysfunctional reactions to that Something. As Kelvin attempts to unravel the mystery, he becomes inexorably involved in the goings-on in a personal way, through the appearance of a long-lost love (Natascha McElhone), whose very presence bears out Gordon's previously-cryptic warning to him: "Until it happens to you, there's no need to discuss it". THE UPSHOT I left Solaris with many more questions than answers. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, as I happen to like films that make you think. Thing is, my biggest question was, "why"? As in, "Why was psychologist (yes, a scientist, but not of the "hard sciences") Kelvin allowed - by what was implied to be a Big Brother-ish government - to go to the space station on his own?" and "Why would hard sciences physicist Gordon possibly think that 'until it happens to you, there's no need to discuss it' would be an acceptable answer to give anyone?" and "Why was it that those numbnuts who, after seeing Clooney's [admittedly gorgeous] ass in a fairly natural setting, thought the mere sight of said [admittedly gorgeous] ass warranted an R rating?" (which the producers eventually got lowered to PG-13, but still). Those are just a few of the questions that vexed me after seeing this movie. But more, I'm intrigued by the rather weak point the filmmakers were trying to raise. Perhaps if there had been a few more substantive issues raised, or more to the point, a bit more time addressing those issues in a more substantial way, my malaise would be lessened. On the other hand, I admire writer/director Steven Soderbergh's choice to leave much of the figuring-out to the audience's imagination. Doing so is a crap shoot that can easily backfire - as on balance I think it did here - but Soderbergh deserves an E for the Effort. Unfortunately, Soderbergh's gamble didn't quite pay off for the actors. I like George Clooney a lot more than your average film critic will admit to, and not just for his [admittedly gorgeous] ass. But while I let go, early on, of any notion that this movie was anything more than a romantic drama wrapped up in a pseudo-SciFi bow, it might have been nice, for the sake of show at least, if Clooney would've been allowed to do something more than briefly fondle TomorrowTech on the way to his tearily romantic play acting. Likewise, I was never quite convinced by Natascha McElhone's Rheya, at least not the version who Came Back From Beyond. Sans the attempt at science fiction, I could've enjoyed the Chris/Rheya story as a standalone tale quite a bit more. With the Skiffy subject matter muddying things up, there was too much frustration with what could have been, to just relax and roll with it. But none of this compares to Jeremy Davies' Snow-on-Meth act. Between mumbling his lines for effect, wildly waving his hands hither and yon, and especially the resolution of who his Visitor was, I spent a lot of time laughing whenever he hit the screen. I don't think that "[pause for expected audience laughter]" was written in the script notes. THE "BLACK FACTOR"    [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith] Over on the 3BC "Viewer Voices" ™ webboard, we've been discussing the concept of race-neutral roles in Hollywood (as pertains to Halle Berry in Die Another Day specifically, but Black Hollywood in general, too). A few of the respondents in that thread have expressed concern that any show of ethnicity (especially stereotypically so), might serve to negate future race-neutral casting. Not if Viola Davis has anything to say about it. Her straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to physicist Helen Gordon here in Solaris should hopefully help put to rest the idea that We simply have to Act Black, even when doing so isn't necessary to the role. Besides, Gordon got the best line in the whole movie: "I never get used to these...resurrections". Knowachumean. BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE Solaris is one of those hard-to-judge movies that tend to drive me mad, but in a good way. I can't call this movie good, bad, or even middling; that in mind, I have to give it ye olde flashing yellowlight. If only so you can ask yourself "WTF were they thinking?", Bammer sez check it out. SOLARIS:   back to top And that's the way I see it. Rose "Bams" Cooper 3BlackChicks Review™ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com    ICQ: 7760005 http://www.3blackchicks.com/