Examiner Essentials: # 23 Solaris

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Examiner Essentials are the movies everyone should watch, know and love. And if you watch and know but don't love, it's okay because you will still be an improved person for taking part in your own betterment. But the chances are, you'll love these movies. A list of all the Essentials can be found here.

Title: Solaris (2002)

Director: Steven Soderbergh (The Girlfriend Experience, Che)

Starring: George Clooney (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Burn After Reading), Natascha McElhone (Ronin, The Truman Show), Viola Davis (Knight and Day), Jeremy Davies (Rescue Dawn)

ex-Factor: The music of Cliff Martinez. One of the most important and overlooked aspects of any genre-heavy film is the score, as the music has to appropriately reflect the actions on screen in order to put the audience in the right mind set. For Solaris, Cliff Martinez (Narc, The Limey) did more than just create music - he created whole soundscapes, putting down layers of ambiance and electronic music that somehow perfectly reflected the infiniteness of space and the persistent emptiness felt by the the main character.

The Story: Dr. Chris Kelvin (Clooney) is a psychiatrist who receives a distressing help message from a friend. The problem is that this friend is at a space station, and Chris has to go there to get answers. And of course, the answers he does get really only lead to bigger, deeper questions. Soon enough, Chris finds himself in the same desperate, sanity checking throes of uncertainty that he went to investigate, and the problems that he left behind on Earth somehow make their way to him in space, where he absolutely can not run from them anymore.Why it's Essential: Chances are that there are a few film geeks reading this right now and wondering why this version of Solaris is essential and not the 1972 Soviet film Solyaris, which is widely considered to be the superior adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's novel of the same name. This comes down to personal preference, but Soderbergh's Solaris gets to the same points and conclusions as Solyaris in a smarter and more straight-forward manner (just look at the ten-minute first-person driving POV sequence in Solyaris, a scene meant to show off the "futuristic" look of Tokyo's highways and skylines to the more rural folks of Russia, but now now only serves as a non-scene that stops the story dead in its tracks).But Solaris is not essential just because Soderbergh took a three-hour film and boiled it down to 90 tight minutes, but because of how he spent that 90 minutes. Most of the movie takes place at the space station, which itself is a study in great sci-fi film production design (much like the Nostromo in Alien or the entirety of 2001: A Space Odyssey). And by keeping the cast very small and intimate, Soderbergh gave himself plenty of room to let these characters do their thing, especially Dr. Kelvin, who arrives at the station with a head full of emotional baggage. He's there in an attempt to rescue the non-respondent crew of the space station, but its not long before he's the one in serious need of rescuing. On top of Clooney's emotional performance is McElhone as Rheya, Dr. Kelvin's dead wife. Rheya was a tough role because it wasn't a full character - Rheya only existed in her husband's dreams and flashbacks and as a psychological projection of his of memory. In short, she exists in the film to bring about Dr. Kelvin's catharsis, which itself is less catharsis and more "giving in" - Dr. Kelvin learns that he can actually choose his reality, and whose to say which reality is easier to accept? Solaris is the type of film that rarely gets made; smart, idea-driven sci-fi is usually kept out of the multiplexes (unless your previous film grossed $1 billion worldwide). With a budget of $47 million, Solaris only made $30 million worldwide, so it's no surprise when studios are rushing to make more X-Men movies but drag their feet on smarter, more original films.Memorable Scene: There's a scene in which Dr. Kelvin's projection of his wife dies, but before long, her body starts to weirdly convulse in a strange resurrection. What makes this scene so unsettling is how Soderbergh filmed McElhone writhing on the bed, then played the footage backwards - the unnatural movements are perfect for this alien-type character, familiar looking to the eye but different enough to not be fully human.

Fun Fact: Producer James Cameron almost directed this film, and at one point Daniel Day-Lewis was considered for the leading role. That would have made for a very different Solaris altogether.

Also Recommended: Primer (2004)