A quirky French farce, Paper Souls doesn’t know what tone to take or whose story it is.
The plot here takes a bit of set up. Writer Paul (Guillon, bearing no little resemblance to a young Anthony Hopkins) has an odd job. Since his wife died five years ago, Paul has not being able to return to his novels and makes a living by penning heartfelt eulogies. He meets the bereaved, take notes on the deceased’s character, and cobbles together a tear-jerking speech. He’s encouraged out of this funk by his well-meaning neighbour (Pierre Richard) who tries to set up him with various women.
But it isn’t until he’s employed by widow Emma (Gayet) that he considers the possibility of romance. Her photographer husband died in a war zone and was buried abroad. Their son Adam (Rotenberg) hasn’t been able to accept it. Emma asks Paul to pose as her late husband’s friend and encourage the boy to open up. The three get close and romance bubbles. However, and this is where it gets really complicated, Paul inadvertently imagines the dead man into being: Nathan (Laccai) shows up at his apartment with no memory of who he is and Paul has no choice but to pretend to his new family that dad has miraculously returned.
However, and this is where it gets really complicated (no, really). This Nathan isn’t the Nathan his family knew – he is a construct filtered through Paul: all the romantic memories he conjures up about his wife are in fact Paul’s recollections of his dead wife.
Did you get all that? Good. Credit is due to director Vincent Lannoo and writer Francois Uzan for never losing the audience in the complexity of it all, as Paper Souls never succumbs to its preposterous metaphysical (and silly) idea. Heart, love and warmth are at the core of everything, keeping things from getting too daft despite the goings on.
However, it’s these emotional turns that prove the film’s undoing. If it was just about a man coming to terms with his dead wife and moving on to pastures new and how memories of that love can influence and affect a new romance, that might have saved Paper Souls. This might have worked if the audience knew anything about Paul’s wife, or if the new romance was given room to breathe. But it’s also about a dead man preparing his son and wife for his passing. That might have worked too, if Nathan had any emotional engagement with his family. However, because he can’t remember them or him, they remain strangers and the big tear-jerking scenes fall short as a result.
A funny drama about bereavement or a serious farce, Paper Souls just doesn’t know what to do with itself.
