December 9, 2002 -- "Solaris" is an interesting, but very slow moving film about nightmares coming to life in space. The story is based on the same Stanislaw Lem novel that formed the basis of the 1972 Soviet film of the same name. I've seen them both. If you are having trouble sleeping, rent either film. They will have you in dreamland in no time.

I'm not one of those who encourages people to pay their hard-earned money to suffer for the sake of someone else's art, so I can't recommend this film. It may be acceptable to some in the art film crowd, however, and die-hard science fiction addicts might want to check it out. I'm one of the latter. That's why I saw it. While the film is almost static and colorless, it does explore some interesting psychological issues. The tragedy it lays out is near-perfect in its degree of torture, suffering and hopelessness. It is not sounding like fun yet, is it?

The whole premise of the film is similar to that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it." George Clooney stars as Chris Kelvin, a psychiatrist called upon to unravel the mystery of Solaris, a deep space energy research project which has mysteriously unraveled. He is picked for the assignment precisely because he is competent and his wife recently killed herself. It turns out that people at the Solaris outpost have gone crazy because people from their dreams have come to life and are haunting them. Chris's wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone of "Ronin"), materializes out of thin air, causing him and herself no end of trouble. She somehow has been created by the mysterious water planet, Solaris, below the space station where the researchers live. Rheya realizes she is not the real Rheya, but a replica. She is nevertheless haunted by Rheya's past just as much as Chris is. Chris cannot let Rheya go because of love and guilt. Both Rheya and Chris are trapped by the past, neither can move forward, or even go back to the way they were. She can't even die. She just keeps coming back to life. It is a near-perfect tragedy, and yet another riff on that popular Hollywood belief in determinism. The message: there are no real second chances in life.

The film is a grim examination of a most peculiar psychological trap. Even though it is strange, it also speaks to the universal problem of past events and past relationships haunting and trapping us one way or another. This is one of the things science fiction does: it uses futuristic or other non-traditional circumstances to more clearly highlight aspects of the human condition. The problem with the film is that it has a pace which flows like cold honey. It plods along so slowly at times you would swear you were watching a painting, not a movie. The film also has a thin color palette and an almost inhumanly cold detachment from its characters. In the latter respect, it is reminiscent of a Kubrick film. The slow pace is exacerbated by the fact that long stretches of the film plod by with no dialogue and lots of long, static shots. It is an exercise in style. How does it compare to the original? It is easier to follow the plot, mainly because it was made in English rather than Russian.

The film is directed by Steven Soderbergh ("Ocean's 11" and "Traffic") who also wrote the screenplay. Soderbergh is one of the best directors around. He and Clooney have the clout to get a movie like this made, even though it will probably lose money because it is not an entertainment product. In fact, Soderbergh's desire to make this movie may have been what prompted him to make "Ocean's 11." The success of "Ocean's 11" gave him the clout to make this movie. The studios will grudgingly put up with the occasional "Solaris" if the director can make commercially successful films, and Soderbergh has proven he can deliver. It will be interesting to see what his next project is. Clooney gives an excellent performance, by the way, as does Natascha McElhone. Jeremy Davies of "Saving Private Ryan" is also good as a spaced-out guy named Snow. The character of Snow seems to have escaped from one of those Cheech and Chong drug movies. Snow doesn't really fit into the film all that well, but does provide some welcome comic relief for a time in an otherwise dreary story. This film rates a C.

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