Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6230 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-21
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Solaris is a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's Russian film (often called the "Soviet 2001"), itself an adaptation of the Polish Stanislaw Lem's novel, and is anything but a typical American science fiction film. Psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney, playing it very cool and introverted) is sent to a space station orbiting the perhaps-living planet Solaris to investigate a loss of communication with Earth, and finds only two survivors: a free-associating neurotic (Jeremy Davies) and a control freak (Viola Davis), along with several corpses and evidence of recent violence. Kelvin is shocked to wake up next to his wife Rhea (Natascha McElhone), who committed suicide back on Earth years ago, and treats her like a body-snatched alien, disposing of the creature by jettisoning her into space. But she comes back again, and Kelvin realises she isn't a soulless monster out to get him but a genuinely self-aware construct built from his own memories. Though warned against getting involved, Kelvin tries to maintain a relationship with the non-human woman, hoping to avoid this time the mistakes he made that led to Rhea's death.

Steven Soderbergh, the most versatile and unpredictable director in Hollywood, stages a few big space moments, fascinated by the red and stringy ball of Solaris itself, but mostly sticks to interiors that have a Bergman-esque austerity, with Clooney and McElhone inhabiting their own room and going through deep emotional traumas while avoiding actual outbursts. It may be too interior a film for mainstream audiences, though at a clipped hour-and-a-half it isn't as hard going for non-devotees as the three-hour Tarkovsky version, but there is a lot of real meat here none the less. --Kim Newman

DVD Description
DVD Special Features

• Feature length audio commentary by Producer James Cameron and Director Steve Soderbergh (sound Dolby 2.0)
  
• HBO behind the scenes special
  
• Solaris: Behind the Planet feature
  
• Script
  
• Animated menus

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (16 x 9 Widescreen)
  
• Sound Quality: Dolby 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired
  
• Running time: 99 minutes

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Region 2

Customer Reviews

Beautiful love story set in space
This is a great movie that did not do very well in the box office due to some marking issues.

The original Soviet movie has been acclaimed as one of the most brilliant sci-fi movies ever made ( the Soviet answer to 2001 ) however it goes on for nearly 3 hours.

The plot follows the arrival of a Psychiatrist ( Clooney ) to a space station to investigate the unexplained changed in behavior of he members of the station.

Steven Sodenbergh has shortened the feature to 90 minutes , Clooneys acting is very convincing, but the best thing is the movie is Natasha McElhone who delivers her best performance so far , as very intense and troubled woman. Jeremy Davies and Viola Davis complete the cast.

The atmosphere and sound effects of the movie are claustrophobic and dark but have a flavor that reminds of Bladde runner and 2001 ( the docking scene and the rain in the street .

The movie will appeal to sci-fi fans and those who are interested in open ended stories ( who might have to do some research on the internet to find out the meaning of he movie ).

Overall a very enjoyable 90 minutes but this is not a fast paced action movie but a love story set in space.

"And death shall have no dominion"

Refreshing.
While Solaris is inevitably labelled Sci-Fi its core themes are distinctly human. Loss, regret and the realization that memory tends to simplify events, people and places. While the original film allows the viewer to muse on the overall, Soderbergh's take focuses on the main protagonist's (Clooney) experience with the strange 'planet'. With only a standard 90 minutes to play with the director has done a good job of explaining the power Solaris wields without having to constantly remind us with new and more bizarre consequences (and special effects).

The visuals sway from the ethereal (Solaris), austere (Earth) and utilitarian (Space Station). On the commentary track, Soderbergh tells us he wanted Solaris to have a 'synaptic' quality to it and the effect is beautiful. Cliff Martinez's score, too, will follow you around for months.

As for the cast, Clooney is excellent as ever. While his performance doesn't require histrionics he makes believable a shrink thrown into a situation where his vocational skills are rendered useless by minds becoming matter. Natascha McElhone is charged with an incredibly difficult role. Her character on Earth is confident, sexy, playful, remote and ultimately suicidal; on Solaris she has to play whatever Clooney's character has in mind...hard work, but admirably done. It's unfortunate that in one weak scene of un-necessary exposition the focus is on McElhone but it's a fault of the screen-writer, not her. Jeremy Davies' Snow is perhaps the character that deserved more attention than was given. Considering his unique 'situation' it would have been worth an extra half hour to explore it. Viola Davis is okay but ultimately pointless. The removal of her character wouldn't have affected the film in anyway and her presence really only fills an authority vacuum on the station.

It's good to see adult themes being explored in the Sci-Fi genre and being embraced by Hollywood heavyweights....and not a LaZer BeAm in sight. Obviously this film won't appeal to the 'action' based wing of Sci-Fi fans and the polarity of opinions shown here is evidence of this. But as a serious slice of "what if", Solaris rewards attention and multiple viewings.

Hypnotic charm
At last ! A sci-fi film that polarises opinion! A sci-fi film which is not in-your-face CGI and all-action/no-brain!

You'll like this film if you're interested in exploring the human condition, and in actors who play it for real. There are enough reviews here for me to say no more about the plot, slight as it is, but cinematography lovers will be absolutely blown away by the dramatic realization of Sodeberg's vision - the sets, the lighting and above all the hypnotising music are absolutely spot-on - total immersion in the created world is instantaneous. It also has a great 2001 late sixties vibe which others have commented upon, and this is undoubtedly a very good thing.

Worth twenty quid of anyone's money, and at less than four, an absolute bargain.