As a sort of fan of the original, this was one of the few movies that nowadays I have bothered to go to see in the cinema. Having seen it once I wasn't overly impressed by the movie as a whole, but primarily by Steven Soderbergh's extraordinary photography of Natascha McElhone's lambent beauty.
Since the film has made its way to satellite and cable, however, I discover that I cannot resist putting it on and watching it again, and allowing myself to be subsumed by the utterly tragic mood. The main contributor to this is Cliff Martinez's phenomenal score in which the constant thrumming of steel drums over an ethereal orchestra carries you through long exploratory shots of the luminous sea of Solaris, or eloquent silences between characters.
Clooney and McElhone are very affecting as the, almost literally, "star-crossed lovers". Unfortunately I find the two Davi(e)ses somewhat detracting from the whole, with Jeremy's "Snow" a slacker whom it is difficult to believe would qualify to fly in space, and Viola's "Gordon" seems to be out of a rather more conventional "space alien" movie - in fact her performance more than a little resembles Yaphet Kotto's in the movie 'Alien'! Ulrich Tukur as Gibarian, however, is a wonderfully understated reminder of the original material's European origins.
The one failing of this movie compared to its predecessor is Soderberg's inability to portray Solaris as a character in its own right, something Tarkowsky seemingly managed with ease.
Since the film has made its way to satellite and cable, however, I discover that I cannot resist putting it on and watching it again, and allowing myself to be subsumed by the utterly tragic mood. The main contributor to this is Cliff Martinez's phenomenal score in which the constant thrumming of steel drums over an ethereal orchestra carries you through long exploratory shots of the luminous sea of Solaris, or eloquent silences between characters.
Clooney and McElhone are very affecting as the, almost literally, "star-crossed lovers". Unfortunately I find the two Davi(e)ses somewhat detracting from the whole, with Jeremy's "Snow" a slacker whom it is difficult to believe would qualify to fly in space, and Viola's "Gordon" seems to be out of a rather more conventional "space alien" movie - in fact her performance more than a little resembles Yaphet Kotto's in the movie 'Alien'! Ulrich Tukur as Gibarian, however, is a wonderfully understated reminder of the original material's European origins.
The one failing of this movie compared to its predecessor is Soderberg's inability to portray Solaris as a character in its own right, something Tarkowsky seemingly managed with ease.