What happens to you when you come in contact with the planet Solaris depends on your mind and your memory.

What happens to you when you come in contact with the movie Solaris, the new Steven Soderbergh love story disguised as science fiction, is about the same. Beauty (or otherwise) seems to be in the eye of the beholder for this one; I loved every frame of Solaris. I'm just not sure why.

George Clooney stars here as a psychologist asked to travel to a remote space station, the Prometheus, to find out what's gone wrong. The scientists on Prometheus have been studying the planet Solaris, and have cut off all communication with Earth.

Solaris is set in the future -- and it's a tad bleak. Even before Clooney's character sets foot on Prometheus a sense of dread and loss permeates everything, and mostly because of the way his character looks at life.

Once on Prometheus, he discovers fear, loss and madness. It seems the planet Solaris possesses a seductive intelligence: It is able to take each person's greatest desire or fear or obsession and make it flesh. Those on Prometheus have suffered the effects.

So Clooney's character sleeps and dreams of his greatest love -- his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone) who is, alas, dead. And then, as if his dreams have come true, Rheya is there with him on Prometheus. Is she a dream? An hallucination? A work in progress?

The planet Solaris, it seems, functions like a mirror of the mind and soul.

Solaris is most arresting on a visual level, and that's just the closeups of Clooney and McElhone, which are constant. The film is romantic and scary at the same time, but for emotional reasons -- don't expect warp speed or space critters, because that's not what's going on here.

The good stuff includes an intelligent script, surprising performances and fascinating visual and emotional detail. There are some wobbly bits, to be sure, but so much is ambiguous that it's endlessly intriguing. Well, maybe not endlessly, but you get the point. This one is different. Solaris makes you think and keeps you wondering long after you've left the theatre.

We consider that well worth the price of admission.

(This film is rated AA)

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