Saturday, March 22
8:56 p.m.
It felt like a relapse today. This flu does linger for quite some time. I’m tired and really congested. I woke up and got caught up on my blog. I suffered most of the day without any medication until about 3:00 p.m.
I watched the movie Solaris. It received horrible reviews when it came out in and it bombed in the theaters. I never bothered going to see it or renting it. I was surprised at how good it actually was. I mean, it’s not a great movie, but it isn’t that bad, either. Solaris is a Polish science fiction novel written by Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006). It was originally published in Warsaw in 1961. It was first adapted into a Russian film, Solyaris in 1972 and then Steven Soderbergh wrote a screenplay and filmed his version in 2002, which starred George Clooney.
The plot is such: A psychologist, Kris Kelvin (Clooney), suffering the grief of his wife’s (Natascha McElhone)death, receives a cryptic message from a friend telling him to join him on the space station Solaris, which is studying a spatial phenomena. Because of the phenomena, people from the Solaris’ crew’s memories begin appearing and interacting with them, including the psychologist’s dead wife. The people appearing do not know they were created by the phenomena and think they are the “real” people interacting with the people they know on Solaris.
This film moved like a Stanley Kubric film, not dissimilar to what 2001: A Space Odyssey was back in 1968. I am sure critics would oppose pairing Soderbergh’s failed film against Kubric’s classic. But, like 2001, Solaris is slow moving and much more of a psychological story verses the kinds of laser beam gun and alien monster movies that tend to rule the space/science fiction genre.
It’s a movie that is certainly thought provoking.
At one point, I thought about motivating and getting out for the evening. There’s a cool IMAX film now playing at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) at the OMNIMAX dome theater called Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk about the Colorado River. It is set to music by Dave Matthews Band. It’s narrated by Robert Redford. I just couldn’t quite motivate to go out. But I do make a note that I’d still like to see this.
Finally, after dinner the 1956 classic movie The Ten Commandments came on. I watch this every year at Easter. I just love it. I think Charlton Heston was amazing in the role of Moses. When this film came out it was tagged: The Greatest Event in Motion Picture History. I curled up on the sofa, made some organic, free-trade hot cocoa and was actually pretty happy to stay in.
