67
Metascore
38 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanSolaris achieves an almost perfect balance of poetry and pulp. This is as elegant, moody, intelligent, sensuous, and sustained a studio movie as we are likely to see this season -- and in its intrinsic nuttiness, perhaps the least compromised.
- 100Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversClooney brings raw intensity to his role; his scenes with McElhone are rooted in a fierce romantic yearning.
- 90SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirSoderbergh's film is probably not the equal of either Tarkovsky's 1972 predecessor or the memorably Byzantine prose of Lem's novel, but in the end, almost despite himself, this able craftsman has made a brave and lovely companion piece to both of them. His ending is pure cinema at its most marvelous and moving.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe Soderbergh version is like the same story freed from the weight of Tarkovsky's solemnity. And it evokes one of the rarest of movie emotions, ironic regret.
- 80Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternUnexpectedly thoughtful, as well as touching.
- 75USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigSoderbergh does a fine job creating a moody atmosphere of pervasive anxiety. The ending can be interpreted a few different ways and should ignite debate about its meaning.
- 75Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrTo appreciate Solaris, the new film by Steven Soderbergh, it helps to downshift your moviegoing metabolism to a level approaching the cryogenically frozen: The movie's that cerebral, that contemplative, that slow.
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe film's real appeal won't be to Clooney fans or adventure buffs, but to moviegoers who enjoy thinking about compelling questions with no easy answers.
- 70TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissCan't touch the 1972 film's austere poignancy, and McElhone lacks the bewitching beauty of Natalya Bondarchuk in the original Solaris. But the project's gravity and ambition can't be denied.
- 40The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyI know there are intelligent people who are awed by this sort of deep-dish magical mystery tour, but surely something is wrong with a movie when you can't tell a live character from a dead one and you don't care which is which. [9 December 2002, p. 142]