Scripted, shot, directed and edited by Soderbergh with his customary intelligence and assurance, this is perhaps the most ambiguous and cerebrally sophisticated Hollywood movie in nearly three decades.
Comment
06/24/06
Solaris (2002)
65
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:195
Fresh:126
Rotten:69
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Slow-moving, cerebral, and ambiguous, Solaris is not a movie for everyone, but it offers intriguing issues to ponder.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: Steven Soderbergh, whose eclectic resume includes the Academy Award(R)-winning drama "Traffic" as well as last year's ensemble caper "Ocean's Eleven," now brings his unique vision to SOLARIS, a... [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Reviews for Solaris
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticIt has the courage to wonder about big questions with sincerity and devotion. It risks seeming slow and pretentious, because it thinks the gamble is worth the promise.
03/16/03
Thoughtful, moving, impressively-directed sci-fi with a great performance by Clooney -- the pace may be off-putting but this is a deeply rewarding film.
02/22/03
One of the finest science fiction films since 2001: A Space Odyssey.
02/11/03
Top CriticWith audacity and style, Steven Soderbergh has revisited one of Russian cinema's landmarks, and done so very successfully.
03/25/03
Top CriticClooney handles himself very well in a rare dramatic role; he draws us into Kelvin's obsessive mind nicely, although he's perhaps not quite up to the challenge of taking us over the brink.
02/27/03
Anomalous and mesmerising.
10/19/03
Top CriticThe liveliest moments in Steven Soderbergh's Solaris belong to Jeremy Davies' hands.
11/28/02
Click here for article.
11/26/02
In a move as audacious as it is disastrous, Steve Soderbergh has decided to push the edges of what filmmaking can be and created in Solaris not so much a motion picture as a still life.
04/05/03
If you're going to make a 'thinking man's' film that alienates the public at large, then at least have the foresight to avoid amateurish dialogue delivered by feeble performances.
01/13/03
There’s no emotional pulse to Solaris. With an emotional sterility to match its outer space setting, Soderbergh's spectacular swing for the fence yields only a spectacular whiff.
12/02/02
We split on this one, but both agree it was pretty to watch.
11/27/02
Why Steven Soderbergh and his producers (who include James Cameron) wanted to try their hands at it is a mystery. And viewing the hollow result doesn’t shed any light on that mystery.
12/16/02
This much random psychobabble hasn't flattened a movie this badly since Kirk found "God" at the center of the galaxy in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
11/26/02
Solaris is rigid and evasive in ways that Soderbergh's best films, "Erin Brockovich," "Out of Sight" and "Ocean's Eleven," never were.
12/06/02
Although impeccably made, the film is a slow and demanding work that firmly resists almost all of the pleasures of the sci-fi genre.
11/23/02
...though Soderbergh's script does have some conceptual weight, it is completely dissonant with his trite direction.
12/02/02
Although it's meant to be restrained and free of emotional hysteria, the result is a movie that pretty much lies dead on the screen for an hour and a half.
11/27/02
Based on a film that was based on a book, the third generation of this tale has the pallor of a smudged photocopy of an idea that has been revived without being re-imagined.
11/26/02
Latest News for Solaris
July 20, 2007:
Catalina Sandina Morena Joins Soderbergh's Che Films
Did you know that Steven Soderbergh was making a movie about Che Guevara? Starring Benicio Del Toro in the title role? Yeah, me too. But somehow I missed the news that he was... More...
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