Solaris

Aroview: Revisiting Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi epic, dir. Soderburgh sustains comparisons with a thoughtful, stately reprise of its mysterious story of a journey into both outer and inner space.

George Clooney is sent to investigate a troubled space-observatory, orbiting a vast oceanic planet - seemingly the source of onboard visitations and disturbances in the minds of the human observers. Despite his best intentions, he soon finds himself enveloped in the enigma, confronting a 'copy' of his late wife and various traumatic memories.

Though without the dilapidated atmosphere and poetry of Tarkovsky's version, this certainly carries the force of emotional passage in its more pointed structure and blunt imagery. Provocative in its grand themes (fate, predestination, love and God), this is rare Hollywood fare - impeccably mounted with a star cast, yet introspective and speculative. Both versions are originally from the novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem.

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