Cold Souls
August. 07,2009Paul is agonising over his interpretation of 'Uncle Vanya' and, paralysed by anxiety, stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls. He enlists their services—only to discover that his soul is the shape and size of a chickpea.
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Reviews
Fresh and Exciting
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Paul Giamatti is preparing to play Uncle Vanya on Broadway. After reading about the new soul extraction procedure, he finds Soul Storage in the phone book. Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) takes out his soul which looks like a chickpea. Paul struggles to connect to his work and starts fighting with his wife Claire (Emily Watson). He tries a Russian poet soul but that comes with bleak memories. When he tries to get his own soul back, he finds it has been stolen by Nina who is a smuggler of souls from Russia. Her Russian mob boss Dimitri wanted a famous actor's soul for his wannabe actress wife Sveta.Writer/director Sophie Barthes is tapping into an interesting, surreal idea that has a fair bit of Charlie Kaufman. It fails mostly by comparison. The black market for souls could have been more compelling and more surreal. The quirkiness fails to be quirky funny. It's a good idea that could have something really interesting.
This is a very odd motion picture and quite flawed in many ways. One way it is certainly not flawed and an element that truly works beautifully is the performance of Emily Watson as the perplexed, devoted wife. She is mesmerizing when on screen and missed badly when she is not in a scene. Her incredible work here is some of her best and it elevates the entire film. It is amazing how Watson can look so tragically homely in spite of being such a lovely woman in reality. The humanity and depth she gives her character is remarkable and a testament to her talent. Certainly the most gifted actor of our time, Watson gives amazing performances in every film she makes, whether a small part or as the lead. Everything about the woman is completely breathtaking and that her work in cinema has not been yet recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is nothing less than an outrage.
"Cold Souls" begins with possibly the best premise I have seen on film. It is fitting that screenwriter Sophie Barthes was nominated for Best First Screenplay from the Independent Spirit Awards. Paul Giamatti plays Paul Giamatti, an actor struggling with the weight of Checkov. Uncle Vanya is weighing down his soul. This is a problem afflicting most New Yorkers, but there is now a solution. A company can extract your soul and keep it in storage for you. Brilliant.The opening scenes offer some insightful humour and intelligent wit, and offers a fair number of laughs for everybody who immediately saw the comedy in the premise. David Strathairn and Giamatti have great interactions and are very funny, both together and on their own.The rest of movie, though, plays out like a dark mystery or thriller which doesn't really fit the wonderful comedic start. The main obstacle for our hero, and the thriller plot are significantly darker and melodramatic than I was expecting. Although it is titled "Cold Souls", I was hoping for less cold and more soul-fulfilling insightful humour.It is a dark comedy, so probably a must-see for fans of the genre. However, I think one of the problems with coming up with such an inventive idea, is viewers will likely form their own story line, so if it doesn't play out as you would have written it, it will seem disappointing and disjointed as it did for me. But that being said, the interest and intrigue behind this story would be too much to pass this up.
I gave the movie 9 and I stand behind that. The classic Giamatti drama, wit and humour are not lacking here and there are foreign-speaking parts which are blissfully uncluttered. The viewer has to be forgiving of practical details relating to the non-local scenes because getting bogged down in the reality of what would likely have really happened would make the movie darker than desired and be inconsistent with the unreal aspect of the plot. In essence, a little flexibility on the practical nature of things is rewarded with a rich experience. The only real downside is the undeveloped character played by Emily Watson. Even a few more good lines could have given us a full character. If her character was supposed to be an equal presence then the movie would get a lower grade, but as a supporting role it was good.