Cold Souls (2009) Reviews

• Emptiness takes on a new meaning

  moviemanMA2009-09-17

  Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Cold Souls is a unique take on the human soul. We find Giamatti struggling with his acting, well, overall he is just struggling. He has dark, morbid thoughts and can't focus on his career. When a friend recommends him check out an article in the New Yorker. The article talks about soul removal and storage. Yes, soul removal and storage. Giamatti meets with Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) and is convinced that the procedure might actually work. He has his soul removed, only to find that his complete physical and mental disposition is altered. The the problems keep on rolling. After trying out a rental soul, he demands to get his soul back, only to find that it has been taken to Russia through "soul trafficking". Now he must go on a search through the black market of soul buying and selling to try and find himself. This film is one part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one part Being John Malkovich, and one part originality. It's a somewhat dry film with nothing that really grabs you in a special way, but it's not a boring film. Giamatti's character, actually most of his characters, are somewhat detached from the rest of the world, but never more so than here. He is the perfect choice to play the soulless man. He constantly looks depressed or discouraged, much like his character in Sideways, and his outbursts, although not as funny or powerful as Sideways, are believable effective. What impressed me a lot about this film was the production value for a first time feature. It spared no expense in making this soul storage technology seem as legitimate as possible without going too far over the edge. Much like Eternal Sunshine, we have a foreign and completely absurd science that is made to look legitimate and believable. Sure enough it worked. As I said earlier, the film is a bit dry. There are parts that were funny and scenes that could have been more emotional, but either the scene wasn't long enough or the images weren't strong enough. The camera work too was kind of annoying. It bumped around a lot when I would have preferred a still shot to see everything clearly. It's not a bad film by any means. It's an interesting story with some nice solid performances by Giamatti, Strathairn, as well as Dina Korzun (the soul trafficker) and Emily Watson as Giamatti's wife. A nice little film that makes you happy to have some personality.

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• Dark yet delightful.

  nonsequitur2472009-03-29

  I saw this film today as part of FSLC and MoMA's New Directors / New Films Festival. The screening was followed by a Q&A with writer/director Sophie Barthes, who openly admitted to being annoyed by comparisons between her film and Charlie Kaufman's works. Though not entirely similar, the surrealist feel of 'Souls' is bound to draw those comparisons, and even if Barthes is sick of hearing it, I have to say, I imagine that if Kaufman and Anton Chekhov decided they should write a movie together and Michel Gondry agreed to direct Paul Giamatti in it, this would be the result. The film focuses on Giamatti, who plays a version of himself preparing to star in Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' on Broadway. He finds himself tormented by the Russian material, even though it's one of Chekhov's "lighter" plays. In search of relief, he undergoes a procedure in what looks like a modded MRI machine at the hand of Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) which removes his chickpea-like soul from his body and freezes it temporarily until he is ready to possess it again. The B story follows a willowy Russian named Nina (Dina Korzun) who transports anonymously donated Russian souls to America using her own body as the vessel. At one point, she takes Giamatti's soul to Russia, where her boss's soap-actress wife is in need of talent and inspiration, and of course, trouble ensues. Despite the heavy subject matter, an abundance of absurdity and wit make 'Cold Souls' amusing as well as thought-provoking. Though the tone is dark, it is not suffocatingly so--Barthes pokes fun at existential torment while seriously grappling with it at the same time. Giamatti is great as the "actor much like himself" and Strathairn and Korzun provide excellent support. The camera drifts in and out of focus in a beautiful manner throughout the film, and the French music suits the mood. The writing is solid, though the pacing is a little uneven--the film begins and wraps up a little too quickly--and the three years of hard work that Barthes poured into this clearly show. Barthes said that she based the screenplay on a dream she had, and that while she admires Kaufman, she was more heavily influenced by Woody Allen and French Surrealists like Luis Buneal. She has infused this dark Surrealism with whimsy and absurdism to create something entirely her own, and the result prompts both pleasure and discomfort. 'Cold Souls' is definitely worth watching--I hope it's distributed as widely as it deserves to be--and Barthes is definitely a writer and director I'd watch in the future.

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• Impressive Giamatti Performance in Futuristic Dark Comedy

  mannyrsox242009-05-27

  This dreamlike dark comedy starring Paul Giamatti is strangely hilarious at times and at other times it is moving. Paul Giamatti who plays himself in the film, is an actor in misery that is struggling with acting a soulful character in a Chekov play. He reads an article in The New Yorker about a company that can extract souls and preserve them, so one can live without a soul. Giamatti being curious decides to check it out. David Strathairn plays the soul doctor and is hilarious. Giamatti's first visit is full of humorous dry jokes as he is convinced to have his soul extracted. After feeling hollow and empty without a soul, Giamatti decides to borrow the soul of a Russian poet. Unsatisfied, all he wants is his own soul back, however it has been borrowed by the soap opera actress wife of a Russian mafioso. The way the film is portrayed is very surreal and the director did an excellent job capturing this feel. Giamatti steals the screen as he is humorous and yet can believably portray such complex emotion.

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• A Surrealistic Sci-Fi Gem

  wolftab-12009-06-11

  My first and sadly only chance to see a film at SIFF turned out to be a terrific choice. Cold Souls, featuring Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson and David Strathairn is wonderful. A surrealistic sci-fi meditation on the soul; it's effect and meaning we give it in our lives. Sounds heavy and at times it is, but beautifully interwoven with comedy and thoughtfulness throughout. Set sometime in the future, Paul Giamatti plays himself. He is an emotionally drained actor who is struggling with the lead role in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. The part is causing him extreme anxiety. He discovers a place that will extract your soul and put it in cold storage until the time you are ready to put it back again. By extracting his soul, Paul believes this will free him up more to play the part without it placing such a heavy emotional burden on himself. However, things do not turn out as planned and we are left with seeing Paul struggle with the meaning of his soul and the fear that he must face within himself. In turn, we in the audience also cannot help but look inward. The film also includes an interesting subplot set in Russia with Russians doing their own version of soul extraction but with deeper consequences. Paul's soul is taken by a soul trafficker mule back to Russia to be inserted into a no-talent soap opera actress. This leaves Paul with no alternative but to go to Russia and track down his soul. This great film helmed by first time writer/director Sophie Barthes is filled with lush metaphors, some beautiful camera work and a beautiful ode to one of the world's greatest playwrights...Chekhov. There have been comparison's to Being John Malkovich, but don't let Miss Barthes hear that. This is her original work, based on a dream she had. She originally meant this to feature Woody Allen but she needed someone younger with more energy. She couldn't have picked a better choice in Paul Giamatti. This is a Tour de Force acting by Mr. Giamatti. He pulls off several different characterizations of soulless people that are just magnificent. There is one particular instance when being without his soul he is acting as if he has forgotten how to act, it is hilarious. If you want to see great acting, check out this performance. Everything Mr. Giamatti does is clear. You understand his circumstance and how he feels about it. I loved his relationship with Emily Watson who plays his wife Claire. Miss Watson is another stellar actress but sadly, she is underused in this film. David Strathairn plays Dr. Flinstein who is charge of the company that does soul extraction. I liked his portrayal. It was honest and unforced. He worked well off his partners by simply listening and responding in a meaningful way. Actually, there isn't really a bad performance from anyone in the film. Even the Russians are pretty good. Which leads me to the soul trafficking mule, Nina (Dina Korzun). I felt she was a great metaphor for a Chekhovian character. She embodied psychological angst with stillness and subtlety. Although, it is not a great performance but it is still compelling. The ending is exquisitely ambiguous. It will mean something different to each person who sees it. This original work should receive award recognition come next awards season. I will be shocked if Mr. Giamatti is not graced with many Best Actor nods. It will be out in a limited engagement starting in August. Watch for it. This is a gem and by far the best movie I have seen so far this year.

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• Paul Giamatti awesome performance!

  daniela-atwood2009-08-15

  Cold Souls By Edward Havens The easiest, and laziest, way to describe the new movie "Cold Souls" is to compare it to "Being John Malkovich." Yes, both feature a well-respected film actor playing a character named and slightly modeled after them, and find "themselves" in fantastical situations. The only other way they could be logically compared: They're both delightful and dexterously hilarious. "Cold Souls" has a simple enough concept. Paul Giamatti (brilliantly played by Paul Giamatti) is an actor in New York City currently in rehearsals for a Broadway production of Anton Chekov's "Uncle Vayna." But with all the pressures of being famous and trying to decide which film project to choose next, Paul is having some trouble connecting to the role, and he believes he might have found his answer when he reads an article in the New Yorker magazine about an experimental process that claims to be able to remove someone's soul. Paul visits the clinic out on Roosevelt Island (an apparently soulless plot of land between Manhattan and Brooklyn, for those unfamiliar with the city's landscape, that was also used as the location of Jennifer Connelly's haunted apartment in the movie "Dark Water" a few years back) and after being assured of the validity of the clinic's claims by its founder and operator Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn), signs up. At first, Paul does experience a very mild sense of relief to be divested of most of his soul. (It is explained that, after the extraction process, a small amount of residual soul remains.) His sex life with his wife (Emily Watson), and his coworkers on the stage do notice a slight but immediate different with their star, but Paul is still less than satisfied. Luckily for him, the clinic does also offer the ability to borrow some souls on hold, and even luckier, there happens to be what he is told is the soul of a Russian poet at the facility. But, alas, it goes both ways. A side plot features Nina (Dina Korzun), a Russian woman whose job is to smuggle souls between New York and St. Petersberg. Her boss's young trophy wife wants to be an actress, and he commands Nina to get the soul of one of the actors on his wife's list, which includes several A-list, Oscar-winning actors. When Nina gets to the clinic in New York, however, she discovers there is only one actor with a soul in storage. Paul Giamatti, who is not on the list. No matter. She loads Paul's soul into herself and takes it back to Russia, telling her boss and his wife it's the soul of one of the actors on her list. Paul, in the meantime, is starting to have some strange reactions to his new soul. He starts having bizarre visions of places he's never been to and people he's never met. It isn't until he visits Dr. Flintstein to get this soul removed and get his put back in that the theft of his soul is discovered, spinning the narrative into an unexpected but still poignant direction, as he uncovers what is happening in Russia and teaming with Nina to get his soul back. When a film stars the likes of Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson and David Straithairn, there is little chance it would somehow be a lesser effort, even with a first-time feature director. Sophie Barthes, however, has a lot more heart and... well, soul, than the average tyro filmmaker. Barthes, who also wrote the film, says she was inspired after dreaming of Woody Allen discovering he has the soul of a chickpea. It's a cute idea, and one that could have been an utter failure in the hands of a less mature artist. Thankfully, Barthes doesn't appear to be interested in paying homages or outright ripping off anything another film or filmmaker she enjoyed in the past. Barthes seems content to just entertain by making you laugh, and in this regard, she exceeds remarkably well. Much of that success comes from having a fearless performer like Paul Giamatti willingly allowing himself to be human. The movie's Paul Giamatti is not that likable a guy on a number of occasions (not unlike Harvey Pekar from "American Splendor" or Miles Raymond from "Sideways"), and it is the rare performer who will take that chance with an audience when the vast majority of the film is riding on his shoulders. Giamatti and Barthes effortlessly guide the movie from pathos to mirth and from eccentric character comedy piece to an international hunt for the essence of what makes us human. It's also wonderful to see David Straithairn do comedy again, a genre he rarely visits and one he should return to time and time again. Best of all, "Cold Souls" is that rare type of movie that will make you laugh at many different levels, and will make you laugh as you think about it after the movie has ended. There are several wonderfully subtle jabs about celebrity and humanity buried deep in the text, ones that (at least by this writer) will be left to the viewer to discover and reflect upon themselves. My rating: A-

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