THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002
FILM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 13
'Solaris' strips sci-fi down to bare bones
FILM
Peter Black
pblack@kansan.com
Solaris is not a movie that the average moviegoer will love. The advertisements promote the film as a romance story, and it is, but it is blended with a mind-bending science fiction story, which raises philosophical questions about what reality consists of.
Dr. Chris Kelvin, played by George Clooney, is a psychiatrist in the somewhat near future who gets an ambiguous message from a friend aboard a space station conducting experiments on a colorful, seething mass of energy known as Solaris. Apparently Kelvin's expertise is needed aboard the ship in an attempt to bring its crew members home because a strange force has taken over the ship. Kelvin finds himself aboard the ship only to find its Star Trek-like stainless steel corridors eerily empty.
He finally stumbles across the only two crew members left alive, Snow and Helen Gordon. It doesn't take long for Kelvin to fall prey the tricks of Solaris when his dead wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone), appears next to him in bed. Like the other crew members, he is torn between going home to Earth to a reality where his wife is dead or staying on the space station where he can live in an alternate reality
SOLARIS★★★(OUT OF FOUR)
and have a second chance with her to correct his past mistakes with a replica of Rheya.
George Clooney, Nattscha McElhone Rated PG-13 for sexuality/nudity, brief language and thematic elements Playing at South Wind 12, 3433 Iowa St.
The clone of Rheya looks like she did on Earth, a tall, beautiful woman with long, flowing brown hair and exotic facial features like a Victoria's Secret model. However, her saucer-like eyes paired with the stale, metallic-blue lighting of the ship give her an appearance that is almost alien. Although she looks human, she can't be killed, as Kelvin finds out after sending her away on a space pod only to again find her next to him after waking up. She has trouble remembering things from her past because she is made up of the memories from Kelvin's brain. The whole premise of memory fuels much of the internal conflict through the film. Kelvin struggles with whether he remembers Rheya correctly or
if his memories of her are constructed out of preconceptions.
What makes Solaris worth the price of admission is Steven Soderbergh's film-making. This film establishes him as a true auteur. Although he doesn't act as director of photography for this film like he did on his Academy Award-winning Traffic and Ocean's 11, this film looks like a Soderbergh film. Aboard the spaceship, the scenes have a cool crisp look to them, with light blue hues accenting the cold steel walls. The gray in Clooney's hair shines and becomes one of his most dominant features. However, the scenes shot on Earth have soft, rich reds and oranges, appearing to come from lamps within the shot, giving Clooney's skin a warm humanistic glow. The lighting is very romantic, which is fitting because most of the action on Earth depicts Kelvin and Rheya falling
in love. A few fantastic scenes between the two of them are powerful and as simple as a long shot of the two of them nervously brushing each others' hands before finally holding hands for the first time.
The film is nonlinear, bouncing in and out of dreams and back and forth between the spaceship and Earth. It is confusing, but it is meant to be confusing because it reflects the confusion going on within Kelvin's head. There are long shots that are almost completely silent with very little action, which could be perceived as boring and unfulfilling, but I believe that Soderbergh wanted to make the viewer feel empty to mirror the void that Kelvin feels.
It doesn't seem like much happens — it is boring and slow. There are only five major characters and all the action takes place in four locations. However, the film is absolutely fantastic because, when I hear a movie is set in space, a huge production like Star Wars automatically springs to mind.
This film is condensed and stripped to the bare minimum to focus on the real story, the mental struggle that Kelvin is experiencing. To say the least Solaris is an experience — whether it good or bad is up to you.
'Analyze That' lacks depth, should look inside for jokes
FILM SNOB
James Owen
jowen@kansan.com
Analyze This ended with emotionally conflicted Mob boss Paul Vitti, played by Robert De Niro, on the way to Sing Singyet resolving his conflicts, thanks to his neurotic therapist Ben Sobel, played by Billy Crystal. Analyze That opens with Vitti having been in prison a few years with his original panicked state of mind turning into paranoia. He fears for his life, and he fears that his power he enjoyed on the outside is eroding.
He decides to fake crazy by going days at a time communicating in songs from West Side Story. The Feds call in Sobel to analyze this, and the government decides to put Vitti under house arrest in Sobel's home. Their real intent is to get Vitti out with his old cronies to figure out the big heist that's supposed to go down soon. Believable? No, but high concept comedy must create its own logic.
For more reviews by James Owen, check out www.filmsnobs.com.
He finds success in the real world as a consultant on a cable Mob show called Little Caesar in need of some authenticity. Vitti invites his old crew to hang around,
Contributed art
Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal reprise their roles as a mob boss and a neurotic therapist in the new movie Analyze That.
which acts as a front to perfect the "big heist."
Director and co-writer Harold Ramis has proven that he can perfect both familiar comedy (National Lampoon's Vacation and Caddyshack) as well as unbelievable comedy (Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day). The two Analyze films fall somewhere in the middle. The first film was light and funny yet had room for the characters to breathe legitimate angst into
the situation. This was no doubt aided by co-writer Kenneth Lonnergan, (You Can Count on Me and Gangs of New York) whose presence was clearly absent here.
De Niro and Crystal still bounce off one another nicely. Vitti gets in Sobel's face, but they have nowhere to go. De Niro still gets the manic anger of Vitti down, but this time
the conflict is left to Sobel. But it seems to come out of left field, as if the screenwriters were still trying to ape the key points in the original. Too bad there's no momentum behind it here. Apparently, the contract Ramis and co-writer Peter Tolan signed only required them to think up innovative ideas, not to actually flesh them out.