Commentary on the movie "Solaris".

COMMENTARY ON THE FILM "SOLARIS" BY MR NIZIN LOPEZ
Solaris, directed by S. Soderbergh (2002)

“There are no answers, only choices”
The science fiction film “Solaris” is transcendence in the true sense of the word. The Solaris of Mr Soderbergh is more than just a movie, it is a great work of art that takes a new approach as far as extraterrestrials go. The non-human aliens depicted in this film are shape shifters that have easy access to the human psyche. When people think of aliens most of them envision hordes of grotesque-greenish colonizing creatures that arrive on flying discs, yet Mr Soderbergh offers a fresh proposal, a psychological one. The psychic aliens in this film appear to be benign yet they apparently view humans as “experiment-puppets”, these beings could make humans kill each other if they wanted to (by mind control).  Their planet, meaning Solaris, appears to be a self conscious organism that reacts to human presence. The extraterrestrial shape shifters that somehow enter the ship could be considered either emanations or an extension of Solaris.
The synopsis goes as follows:
A civilian Doctor named Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) receives a request on behalf of the government. He is asked to visit Solaris in order to recover the mission & to ensure the safe return of the crew members, one of them is his friend Dr Gibarian. Nasa was initially in charge of this project but it was sold to an entity called “DBA”. Humans were sent to Solaris in order to assess its economical potential & to see if it could be used as an energy source.
After a long automated flight the widowed Chris reaches the ship only to discover that some of the crew members are dead including his friend Gibarian (he took his own life). He encounters two surviving astronauts, one of them is called “Snow” (a mentally unstable man) & the other one is a brilliant/paranoid female called “Gordon”. Their meeting only enhances the weirdness of the scenario since Gordon tells him that they are being visited by tormenting entities.
Dr Kelvin soon finds out what is happening in the ship, he wakes up and finds his wife Rheya in his room (the gorgeous Natascha McElhone). At first he thinks he is dreaming but soon he realizes that she is dense and physical though she had taken her own life back on earth. Despite the confusion Chris realizes the truth, he understands that the woman he sees in the ship is not the beloved Rheya of his, it is a non-human alien that has taken the form of Rheya by accessing to his memories. The extraterrestrial also appears to him in the shape of Dr Gibarian & in the shape of Gibarian’s son as well. It is interesting that these appearances occur after sleep since sleeping is in itself an altered state of consciousness.
It turns out that the crew member called “Snow” that he met when he first entered the ship was not as human as he thought, he was also an alien (a copy of Snow). The original crew member, meaning the authentic Snow, was murdered. The alien took his identity & attempted to go back to earth impersonating a human (what would happen on earth if this would be done in a large scale?). Gordon always suspected this but she had no evidence until the body of Snow is discovered.
At the end, the only person that returns to earth is Gordon, the tormented Kalvin chooses to die in the ship. He finally meets Rheya in the afterlife.