SOLARIS

Okay, so SOLARIS was a bit disappointing. Thought-provoking, yes, but coming from director Steven Soderbergh and producer James Cameron, I expected something a bit more...stimulating, for lack of a better word. They're two extremely creative fellows, Steven and James, and science fiction is one genre where a creative fellow can really let his imagination run wild. But with SOLARIS, they willfully snub expectations (something Soderbergh excels at) and create a film devoid of any sense of the fantastic, or of wonder, or indeed of any emotion save regret and despair. What they end up with is a sort of EYES WIDE SHUT in space: two lovers, unable to emotionally connect, reduced to stilted conversation and questions they're unwilling to answer, on an unreal journey to an ambiguous conclusion. And I'm left wondering what could have been, if the two filmmakers had played to their strengths and used the connotations of the genre to their advantage, instead of deliberately working against them.

Still, it's worth seeing for Jeremy Davies' and Viola Davis' excellent performances, Soderbergh's spot-on-as-always cinematography, and most of all for Cliff Martinez's hauntingly beautiful score.