Review: Cold Souls (2009)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                            COLD SOULS
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: COLD SOULS is a bizarre fantasy that gives
     us a world where souls can be removed and transplanted
     like kidneys.  What seems at first like a blessing
     causes some unforeseen and fantastic problems.  The
     first half of COLD SOULS is inventive, but the film
     really loses steam in the second half.  Too many
     technical problems went unsolved in bringing this
     story to the screen.  Sophie Barthes writes and
     directs.  Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or 5/10

Warning: This review has minor spoilers

Actor Paul Giamatti (played by actor Paul Giamatti) is getting a
mid-life crisis.  Shortcomings in his acting are really preying on
his mind.  It looks like he will be fired from performing in his
upcoming production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya".  He is no longer
relating to his wife (Emily Watson).  Dark moments in his past
plague him.  Then he hears about Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn),
a doctor who can remove his soul or even can transplant other
people's souls into patients.  First reports are that people who
have had their souls removed feel very good and function better.  A
special option even allows patients to have their souls removed and
put in cold storage to be reattached later.  There is some intrigue
in a Robert Sheckley sort of style when Giamatti's soul is stolen
 from him.  But it is not fully exploited.

COLD SOULS even has an interesting theme in black market stolen
souls, not unlike the one that exists with organs.  This actually
could have been a satiric crime thriller, but Barthes's script
keeps the thriller elements to a minimum.  Instead the story is
more about Giamatti's introspection.  He goes looking for his soul,
but somehow without much energy.

The problem is that cinema is just exactly the wrong medium for
this particular story.  When Giamatti sits and meditates with his
own soul, when he meditates with no soul, and when he meditates
with another person's soul, he looks just about the same.  In a
story we could look into his mind and see how the soul change is
affecting him.  But in a film we are stopped dead at his face and
can go no deeper.

The story does not really grind to a halt, because there is just
not that much grinding needed.  The story has already slowed on its
own.  We know different things may be going on in Giamatti's head,
but the camera does not pick them up.  Giamatti may be a good
actor, but projecting different souls is apparently beyond his
acting ability.  And when someone else has Giamatti's soul there is
nothing remotely in her behavior that suggests anything of
Giamatti.  The soul might as well be a piece of jewelry for as much
as it affects its wearer.

This seemed like it could have been a fantasy a lot like THE
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.  Certainly the setup with
the peculiar doctor and his strange medical equipment telling
Giamatti all about the process seems much the same.  But ETERNAL
SUNSHINE's operation removed memories, something that the viewer
knows about.  We have some idea what it would be like if some
memories were taken away.  But there is no common agreement on what
a soul is, what is its function, and what would it be like if it
were taken away.  And Giamatti's performance does nothing to
suggest an answer to the question.  Nobody has much experience with
what it would be like to no longer have a soul.  We learn from
Giamatti's performance that without it he goes from puzzlement to
depression.  This is not the stuff of good cinema.  There is just
too much that is too interesting about this situation, but which
gets side-stepped in the script of COLD SOULS.

Fantasy films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF
THE SPOTLESS MIND start with a bizarre premise and then really
expand on the concepts and think about the implications.  This film
just starts with the bizarre premise and expects that impetus and
Giamatti's acting to carry the film.  Neither helps this film much.
I rate COLD SOULS low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1127877/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cold_souls/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper