the issue I had with the Soderbergh/Clooney version is it almost stops being about Solaris at all, and is instead just about the individuals.
What was brilliant about the novel (to me) was that it was about our inability to understand of communicate with the alien intellegence, while at the same time, we are unable to understand and communicate with others of our own species. The two threads mirror each other, and almost completely removing one, leaves it a less interesting story. The Tarkovsy version doesn't do a great job of this either, but Solaris plays a bigger role, so you at least get an inkling of the ocean mirroring our own inadaquacies.
What was brilliant about the novel (to me) was that it was about our inability to understand of communicate with the alien intellegence, while at the same time, we are unable to understand and communicate with others of our own species. The two threads mirror each other, and almost completely removing one, leaves it a less interesting story. The Tarkovsy version doesn't do a great job of this either, but Solaris plays a bigger role, so you at least get an inkling of the ocean mirroring our own inadaquacies.