Deckard42

I can already see that most reviewers won't agree, but: this movie is overrated in my opinion.

I will just briefly say: the actors are really good, so is the camera and artwork and yes, the characters do represent some interesting psychologic constellations.

But overall nothing about it seems brilliant (except perhaps for camera and artwork, which create a very tense atmosphere): the characters portrayed, a girl who cannot realize an own sexual identity and has to pay for preventing her mothers career by being born; a mother who has given up on life since she failed to become a ballerina and now makes her daughter suffer for her loss while at the same time, lives through her and forces the daughter to live her mother's lost dream. All of this has been portrayed before and much better. There is no "beyond" this in the movie, the rest is exploration of the scenario with endless "thrills for entertainment". Neither does the lucid nightmare portray ballet, nor the music, nor the characters in a credible way. One can accept the hallucinative horror episodes as some surrealistic form of storytelling, but the very bold symbolism they incorporate makes it just less credible and nowhere deeper.

Afterall the movie works somewhat similar as any teeny slasher: shocks for entertainment.

Solaris is one of the few highly underrated movies at IMDb. Many have argued the message would be simplistic and the acting below average. I have to disagree with both: The ideas leave deep impressions and the acting is some of the best to be seen.

Solaris develops an almost meditative, slow narrative force, which does not deliver anything ready-made. And that is not at last because of the very subtle, but never the less brilliant performances given. Like this, Solaris chooses a highly unique approach to deliver such a complex message - and it works. The slow narration will take you deeper and deeper into the emotional world of its characters to confront you with essential questions. It is all about the strive for an identity as self conscious being and about the sense behind any effort in life:

"It's the puppet's dream... being human."

Creating and developing your self, by choosing images of possible pasts and futures to pursue. By confronting its characters with emotional situations and choices that would never be possible in any lifetime, the movie reduces its' considerations towards one question: "What are we here for?"

"There are no answers, only choices!"

If you can not see the richness of this answer all at once, you might want to think about Sartre's "Being and Nothingness" or Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus" or how Camus could claim that "I do not believe in god and I am not an atheist!". But even if you have never heard of any of that, you can easily relate Solaris' images to your own life and being.

Unique and rich. Enjoy.