Although not a perfect movie, Solaris is definitely a work that can command your attention and get you thinking.
It is not a big, bravura, dynamic action movie, so if you're looking for something that is big on special effects and loaded with dramatic action sequences, this is not the movie for you. The drama and tension in Solaris are quiet and understated, and are mostly inherent in considering one man's decisions about what love, and loss, and the nature of life, mean to him. In this way, it's a very personal movie.
In the end, we don't know much more about the characters than we did at the beginning, and this is a weakness of Solaris. It requires George Clooney's charisma and his visual attractiveness to rope the viewer in and keep the viewer involved, and to this extent whether the movie works for you or not depends to some extent on whether Clooney's magnetism can draw you in. And because we are given so little information about the characters in the movie, and learn so little about them, there are some moments where the viewer may not understand what's going on or why the characters are behaving the way they are. People who don't like those kinds of "hey, wait a minute, what's going on here?" moments will probably not enjoy the film.
But if you're the kind of person who likes a movie that makes you think "what if..." and draws you to think about what you've seen in terms of your own life and experiences, this is a movie you could watch over and over and enjoy in a quiet, contemplative way. I liked it a lot because it got me thinking about things that are bigger than the world I inhabit, and I'm sure I could watch it again and again and enjoy it every time I watch it. At the same time, I know there are a lot of people who will find it boring, puzzling, and not something that works as pure entertainment. For this reason, I recommend it with some reservations.
It is not a big, bravura, dynamic action movie, so if you're looking for something that is big on special effects and loaded with dramatic action sequences, this is not the movie for you. The drama and tension in Solaris are quiet and understated, and are mostly inherent in considering one man's decisions about what love, and loss, and the nature of life, mean to him. In this way, it's a very personal movie.
In the end, we don't know much more about the characters than we did at the beginning, and this is a weakness of Solaris. It requires George Clooney's charisma and his visual attractiveness to rope the viewer in and keep the viewer involved, and to this extent whether the movie works for you or not depends to some extent on whether Clooney's magnetism can draw you in. And because we are given so little information about the characters in the movie, and learn so little about them, there are some moments where the viewer may not understand what's going on or why the characters are behaving the way they are. People who don't like those kinds of "hey, wait a minute, what's going on here?" moments will probably not enjoy the film.
But if you're the kind of person who likes a movie that makes you think "what if..." and draws you to think about what you've seen in terms of your own life and experiences, this is a movie you could watch over and over and enjoy in a quiet, contemplative way. I liked it a lot because it got me thinking about things that are bigger than the world I inhabit, and I'm sure I could watch it again and again and enjoy it every time I watch it. At the same time, I know there are a lot of people who will find it boring, puzzling, and not something that works as pure entertainment. For this reason, I recommend it with some reservations.