'Solaris:' Sci-fi with soul

Steven Soderbergh's latest cinematic experiment, "Solaris," met with a predominantly negative critical and commercial reception this past Thanksgiving. The film was more akin to a space shuttle crash than the pop culture juggernauts Soderbergh had unleashed in the years preceding i.e. "Sex, Lies and Videotape," "Out of Sight," "Erin Brockovich," "Traffic" and "Ocean's 11." It's sad, really -- a film of this pedigree (written and directed by Soderbergh and produced by James "I'm King of the World" Cameron) deserved better. "Solaris" is in no way a bad movie, just a challenging one. Now that it's available on DVD, astute cinephiles who enter with an open mind and a thoroughly ingratiated sense of patience will be aptly rewarded by sci-fi sans spectacle.\nGeorge Clooney headlines as psycholgist Chris Kelvin in Soderbergh's reinterpretation of Stanislaw Lem's classic sci-fi novel. Kelvin has been sent aboard an isolated space station orbiting the mysterious titular planet in order to investigate his friend, Gibarian's (Ulrich Tukur) disappearance. While there, he and his fellow crewmembers, Gordon (Viola Davis) and Snow ("Saving Private Ryan" vet Jeremy Davies), experience an onslaught of oddities, including, but not limited to, visitations from deceased acquaintances. Included amongst these apparitions is Kelvin's wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone). What follows is an internal struggle that's equal parts romantic and rococo.\nThe movie itself is good enough to warrant a rental, but it's the commentary track that will spur purchase. Soderbergh and Cameron speak intelligently in long, fascinating dialogues concerning the film's thematic arcs, technical specs and the differentiating styles of each man's filmic style. Honestly, it's one of the better tracks I've ever heard, and accompanies its strange cinematic brethren beautifully.