Cold Souls

"When you get rid of the soul, everything makes so much more sense." Cold Souls has a great idea for a movie: Is your soul getting you down? How about removing it? Or better yet – trading it in for another? Although this stonking idea for a movie runs out of steam before time, it just might satisfy Charlie Kaufman fans waiting for his next outing.

Paul Giamatti plays a version of himself in this surrealist metaphysical screwball comedy-drama. Giamatti is an actor struggling with his role as the titular character in Chekov's Uncle Vanya; he feels burdened by his soul and is convinced that it's detrimental to his career. Spotting a review in The New Yorker for Soul Storage, Giamatti is told by doctor/salesman Flintstein (Strathairn) that the process will "de-soul the body or disembody the soul." When his soul is harvested (the extraction sounds like a toilet flushing) Giamatti feels "hollow, light, slightly bored, but great." His performance in rehearsal worries his director, however, as he has lost the gravitas needed for the role, so Giamatti returns to Flintstein to procure a new soul – the soul of a Russian poet. And that's where 'soul mule' Nina (Korzun) comes in. The soul trafficker, who works for the Russian mafia, has made the round trip so many times, carrying the souls of many where her own should be, she doesn't know who she is anymore. She feels aloof, disconnected from the world, and helping Giamatti in his quest just might spark her return to humanity.

There's no doubt that Cold Souls is an original film; a Kaufmanesque vibe inspired by Being John Malkovich. Although Giamatti here is as much Giamatti as Malkovich was in that self-parody, he exaggerates his downtrodden screen persona and thankfully it's never to the extent of caricature. It's fun watching him shuffle about, trying to come to terms with what is happening and the possibilities of it all.

But these possibilities never take shape. Writer-director Sophia Barthes is content to coast on the idea instead of using it as a jumping point to (harrumph) explore the human condition. The idea is better than her ability to investigate it. She is unsure, too, whether or not to deal with the subject seriously or with her tongue-in-cheek, and - settling on a bit of both - the tone of the film lacks cohesion. Barthes has said she got the idea in a dream. She found herself in a futuristic doctor's office with others waiting to see their souls. Barthes woke up before she could see her soul and maybe that's the problem with her film - it raises questions but doesn't go about attempting to answer any of them. Because of this, Cold Souls hits a wall around the halfway mark: with no more surprises to be found, the plot begins to lose momentum. It's also a bummer that the existence of souls is taken as a given – no one questions it, not even Giamatti's wife (Emily Watson), who can tell something is just not right with her now insensitive husband. The lesson he learns is an obvious one, too: no matter how dark, twisted and a heavy burden your soul might be, it's yours and it's unique.

It might sound like I'm down on the film, but it's an interesting debut from Barthes and there's enough here to show that the writer-director will go on to do a lot more.