SOLARIS
"As bad movies go, a dismal catastrophe called 'Solaris' can't go
away fast enough to suit me. This fiasco of infuriating pretentiousness
and numbing incoherence is the first science-fiction film by the overrated
Steven Soderbergh. Let's hope it's his last...Despite the lure of
George Clooney in his birthday suit, you're on your own. Don't say
I didn't warn you....None of it makes one lick of sense, and if George
Clooney can act there is no evidence of it here...'Dead men naked,
they shall be one ... and death shall have no dominion,' mumbles Mr.
Clooney over and over, like he actually knows what he's talking about...If
you figure out what this laughable and tedious stinker is about, send
me a postcard." --Rex Reed,
The New York Observer
"Retooled into a sleek pop fable that doesn't bother to connect all
its dots, the movie aspires to fuse the mystical intellectual gamesmanship
of '2001: A Space Odyssey' with the love-beyond-the-grave romantic
schmaltz of 'Titanic,' without losing its cool. It's a tricky balancing
act that doesn't quite come off... Its insistence on remaining cerebral
and somber to the end may be a sign of integrity, but it should cost
it dearly at the box office." --Stephen
Holden, The New York Times
"I should report that it drives about a quarter of the audience out
of the theater before it is half over. That's because it's slower
than molasses in Siberia...You can't quite call it a meditation, because
the film itself does no meditating: It watches somebody meditate (Clooney),
but whatever conclusions he reaches, he keeps to himself...'Solaris'
is one for the graduate students who know everything about movies
except how to enjoy them." -- Stephen
Hunter, The Washington Post
"As the director of a focused five-person cast, Soderbergh creates
a tight, ensemble feeling that helps the futuristic scenario seem
plausible. Yet, though it is adept at creating an inescapably haunting
mood, the one effect that turns out to be beyond 'Solaris'' grasp
is making its core story as moving as it needs to be...'Solaris' ends
up more challenging and intriguing than personally involving, and
while these are far from small things, it is only human to hope for
more." --Kenneth Turan, The
Los Angeles Times
"Until now, George Clooney has always seemed a present-day version
of Cary Grant or Clark Gable--an old-school movie star better known
for virile charm than inner depth. He's taken a big chance with Kelvin,
a role that forces him to an impressive new level of emotionalism:
For a guy who's spent his career playing cool, he's strikingly good
at acting scared, freaked-out, shattered...While I could tell the
love story was supposed to be moving, I kept feeling the characters'
passion struggling against the virtuosity of Soderbergh's direction,
which is so tight, so gorgeously lit, so worked that even when he
wants scenes to be emotionally incandescent, they wind up detached,
even chilly." --John Powers, L.A.
Weekly
"When I saw Tarkovsky's original film, I felt absorbed in it, as if
it were a sponge. It was slow, mysterious, confusing, and I have never
forgotten it. Soderbergh's version is more clean and spare, more easily
readable, but it pays full attention to the ideas and doesn't compromise.
Tarkovsky was a genius, but one who demanded great patience from his
audience as he ponderously marched toward his goals. The Soderbergh
version is like the same story freed from the weight of Tarkovsky's
solemnity. And it evokes one of the rarest of movie emotions, ironic
regret." --Roger Ebert, Chicago
Sun-Times
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