GOOD MORNING, CHARLYZ
CharlyZ's rebuttal to my tirade against Solaris is so well put that I find myself admiring his prose more than his argument. If you haven't already read it, you should. It appeared on Driver8, Thursday (12.5.02).
I agree that Solaris is a change of pace from the usual space cowboy movie produced for teenage men of all ages. In truth, it is an art film, in wide release, and promoted as mainstream. Given that I was able to see it in one of our commercial cineplexes as opposed to one of the small theatres in town, frequented by sub-title heads is proof enough. The fact that there is something for both sexes--Sci-fi for the guys, George Clooney for the girls--supposedly makes for a good date flick, and doubles the audience. Or so the makers like to think. The film will, of course, fail. That's because the marketing suits, in their rush to have the best of both worlds, misplaced it. Solaris belongs in an art house.
As the saying goes, they drove Clooney hard, and put him away wet. Poor George, who can open a film, was flogged so relentlessly that he must have lost a good five pounds during the shoot. There is scarcely a frame without his mug, mugging. And I reiterate: On the Joe Bob scale: 2 butts. 1 hairy thigh. 2. Naked chests. And face time up the kazoo.. All Clooney, all the time.
Aren't you tipped off to what this movie is about when you don't see any intimate shots of the Natascha McElhone character? There is one scene of her naked arms in bed, and I must say, this woman has been to the gym.
O.k, be it novels or movies, I want someone to take me on his knee and tell me a story. (200l, one of the most exquisite, thought-provoking films of all time), told us a story. I also want movies that track. I am not a deconstructionist. It's one thing to let the reader of a novel use his imagination to fill in the blanks, and another to expect it to work in a visual medium, where you have every tool possible--including computers--to take the viewer by the hand, and lead the way.
The Clooney character is never established in the opening. He is important enough to be called upon to save the hardware, but who is he--as a person--so that I may feel concerned about him? He mopes about this spaceship, which by my count, has three live people, two dead people and two replicates on it.
There is God talk. Perhaps, because of the dead/live wife's comment at the very end. Is Solaris heaven? Is God benign? And, if so, why does he continue to torment us, at the very gates of heaven, by abandoning little boys--real or imagined--on spooky spaceships?
In my last harangue and this one, I failed to mention that Jeremy Davies, playing an unhinged scientist, and Viola Davis, as a scientist who is still hinged, are both terrific.
Here is a movie that let's you wallow in George Clooney, and feel like a deep-thinking person at the same time. Kinda like buying Playboy for the articles.
9:47:25 AM 
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