A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Cinematography
Soderbergh's own DP work: sterile whites bleeding into warm memory-amber
Acting
Clooney's raw grief—forget Batman nipples, this is his best work
Score
Cliff Martinez's ambient dread that hums like the planet itself
Director
Steven Soderbergh
George Clooney
Chris Kelvin
Natascha McElhone
Rheya
Viola Davis
Gordon
Jeremy Davies
Snow
Ulrich Tukur
Gibarian
Michael Ensign
Friend
John Cho
DBA Emissary
Morgan Rusler
DBA Emissary
Shane Skelton
Gibarian's Son
Donna Kimball
Mrs. Gibarian
Elpidia Carrillo
Friend
Kent Faulcon
Patient
Lauren Cohn
Patient
Jennie Baek
Passenger (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Soderbergh shot this immediately after Ocean's Eleven as a palate cleanser, using the same studio lot. The man contains multitudes.
Lem hated both adaptations; he wrote about alien unknowability, while both films made it about human love. The ocean doesn't want anything from us—that's the horror.
US
