Solaris (2003)

A somber, stainless steel future full of somber, stainless steel people. A sentient planet with the power to incarnate loved ones from the memories of the morose (Clooney, as a widowed shrink sent to investigate goings-on at a space station). A movie that's positively tantric -- and, at times, achingly airless -- in its Kubrickian vacuum of emotional suspended animation. Director Steven Soderbergh wanted to humanize Stanislaw Lem's novel of quantum hearts, but he's made a very remote -- if well-tooled -- picture. EXTRAS Soderbergh's commentary with producer James Cameron is a terrific crash course in filmmaking -- and in where not to use a Velvet Underground song cue.