Movie Review

Cold Souls

A little of Charlie Kaufman seeps into “Cold Souls," but not as much as you’d like. It will remind “Simpsons” fans of the episode where Bart loses his soul but unlike what writer/director Sophie Barthes does here, “The Simpsons” gave many more laughs and noticed that the material was a little light for a one and a half hour movie.

Paul Giamatti plays himself, an actor having trouble getting into the character of Uncle Vanya. It turns out his soul is filling him with anxiety and holding him back. He hears about Soul Storage, a sketchy company that de-souls you, leaving you feeling emotionally lighter. There is some funny stuff early on. David Strathairn, playing the head of the clinic, says “to avoid sales tax, your soul can be shipped to our New Jersey warehouse.” After Paul’s soul is extracted, he notices it’s the size of a chickpea, then accidentally drops it. Watching Giamatti and Strathairn crawl along the floor looking for it is a good site gag.

Ninety-five percent of the soul has been taken, leaving five just to stay animated. Paul feels the difference right away. He looks at body parts as if they’re not attached to him. He heartlessly ignores or says inappropriate things during dinner. He has also lost all acting capability, his feeling of “Vanya” becoming monstrously over the top, even groping a female co-star.

Apparently the clinic also transplants other people’s souls into other people’s bodies. Paul decides on Russian poet, perfect for the play he’s doing, but he soon realizes that living the life of this poet comes with even more mental and emotional baggage and decides he wants his soul back. However, this can’t happen because Nina (Dina Korzun), a mule transporting Russian souls to America, has taken his soul back to Russia. It’s part of a new Russian black market business plan of transporting American souls into Russians. An untalented Russian actress (Katheryn Winnick) now possesses his (thinking it’s actually Al Pacino's) and is a better actress with it.

The importance of the soul and emotional baggage is a well-established plot point but in the second half there just aren’t many places for the movie to go. Giamatti will eventually have to go to Russia where the movie spends a long time trying to get his soul back. It finds a few laughs, like finding out that the actress is using his soul for a soap opera job, but the ridiculousness of the first half has worn off. Not only that but the most interesting ideas, like Giamatti having to look inside his own soul to reconnect with it or how carrying souls back and forth has affected Nina, aren’t fleshed out well at all. The first is presented in a non-sensical montage of images and the other is just vague.

Giamatti does his best. He portrays many different emotions, as well as emptiness, as good as anyone probably ever could. The second half lets him down in the end though.

Craig's Grade: C+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%