By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * *)
Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney clearly enjoyed remaking Ocean's Eleven so much they got together again for this sci-fi voyage. Sadly, it's not a case of "watch this space".
In the near future Chris Kelvin (Clooney), a psychologist grieving over the recent suicide of his
wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone), answers a call to a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. He finds the crew are dead apart from Dr Gordon (Viola Davis) and the off-kilter Snow (Jeremy Davies). Neither can or will explain what happened, though Kelvin will soon find out: after dreaming of his wife, he wakes to find her beside him.
Something similar happened to the rest of the crew. For the rest of the film Kelvin will try to find the reason this is happening and to hold on to his apparently revived love. But, largely due to Soderbergh's cold and unemotional storytelling, the chances of any connection are remote.
James (Titanic) Cameron produced the movie and, as the DVD explains, toyed with the idea of directing it as well. No, directing it better.
DVD features: movie (99min); commentary with Cameron and Soderbergh; HBO making of ... ; Solaris: Behind the Planet, another making of ... ; extracts from the screenplay; trailers.
