Plotted like a bad fusion of Charlie Kaufman films, such as “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Cold Souls,” from writer and director Sophie Barthes, does little with its intriguing premise.
Just like in “Malkovich,” actor Paul Giamatti literally plays himself, or at least a caricature of himself. And like in “Sunshine,” Giamatti goes through a high-concept surgery with unexpected side effects. Instead of erasing memories, Giamatti removes his soul.
Giamatti’s role in a production of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya,” is causing him unbearable stress and anxiety. An advertisement in the New Yorker for a high-tech clinic that removes and stores souls sounds like a promising solution.
Apparently, souls are heavy, and having a twisted soul is worse than having no soul at all. At least that’s what Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) tells Giamatti on his first visit. He doesn’t go into more detail, which is one of the film’s problems.
Dialogue barely begins to scratch the surface. Extracting one’s soul hardly seems worth it, especially when the benefits are brushed over. Of course this is a high-concept comedy, but the film makes the idea unnecessarily hard to buy.
Giamatti loses all emotional and physical feeling and realizes he can’t act without a soul. Not wanting his own burdening soul, he fittingly chooses a Russian poet’s soul. His acting performance improves, but he desperately wants his own soul back. He discovers it was stolen by a soul-trafficking mule (Dina Korzun) and must go to Russia to retrieve it.
The film is more interested in its own ideas of soul trafficking and soul remnants left after an extraction than the true nature of the soul. In his first scene, Dr. Flintstein explains that they still don’t understand much about souls, let alone if they are immortal or not – yet souls are inexplicably physical objects. The film opts for the easier road and skimps on the more weighty philosophical and spiritual implications of removing souls.
Giamatti does provide some good laughs, but isn’t even as lovable as his usual sad-sack characters; he doesn’t punch up the endearing neuroses as much as usual. The film shows more restraint than most comedies.
When Giamatti receives the Russian soul, he thankfully doesn’t start speaking with a thick accent, a device that a lesser film would have used. This film is smart in its own right, but it still doesn’t dig deep enough into its story.
Much like Giamatti’s character’s soul, the film itself is quite cold. Director Sophie Barthes shoots the film so the viewer will feel detached, which makes it especially hard to sit through when the pace is so slow.
“Cold Souls” is funny, but could have been funnier. It’s smart, but could have been smarter. For a film about such a heavy topic, “Souls” comes off as a lightweight.
- Eschew It
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