Cold Souls: Review By Rama's SCREEN

I don’t know why Paul Giamatti doesn’t get more Oscar nominations, clearly this man is one of the fiercest character actors of our generation. COLD SOULS is written and directed by Sophie Bartes but it could easily be seen as an attempt to honor… Charlie Kaufman and his weird yet profound concepts. Too bad that is what people will remember about when they see this movie. This soul storage story is ridiculously imaginative and deeply intriguing. With all its subplot and humor, You don’t know what you got til it’s gone doesn’t ring truer than this.

Once again, too bad people will probably compare this to Charlie Kaufman, specifically Synecdoche New York and the character’s similar obsession, but COLD SOULS has a different take. Paul Giamatti plays a version of himself, funny idea by the way, whose soul is tormented by the fact that he can’t separate himself anymore with the role that he’s practicing for in Chekov’s play. Reluctant to believe at first, he slowly but surely finds himself in a situation where soul becomes the one thing that’s on his mind. He thinks it’s got everything to do with why things happen the way they do in his life, instead of taking responsibilities.

Bartes pokes fun of today’s society that so easily goes to all kinds of channels to get quick fix on their problems instead of facing it head on. What if there’s a storage facility that can keep your soul that you blame for not being able to perform right day in and day out?! Bartes has great sense of humor and it works well with Giamatti’s excellent wide range of abilities. Co-star David Strathairn is caliber enough to dance on the same level. He plays a doctor who convinces Giamatti there’s no other way but this to go on with your life, Strathairn is clever and comical with his words as a man who is pretty much like a salesperson/psychologist

The fact that Giamatti’s soul is a size of chickpea is highly amusing. What I always admire about Giamatti are the many reactions he can give to any situation at hand. As soon as his co-star says something, he can respond in a heartbeat, with different tone of voice for his line or different facial expression or various kinds of gestures and body language that aren’t repetitive. He can be on stage or he can look straight into the camera and he still disappears in his character, that’s drowning in self-pity and depression.

The only thing I regret is that COLD SOULS doesn’t use Emily Watson fully. She is a great, Oscar nominated actress but the story doesn’t allow her to do much, there’s a scene or two where you’d think she can take her character to go somewhere but her character lays down too much restriction.

Barthes is smart to include the subplot of Russian mule and soul trafficking. What I thought was just a localized independent movie turned into an independent movie that crosses over to another continent, makes it all the more hilarious to see where Giamatti’s soul ends up.. in a Russian actress who thinks she owns Al Pacino’s soul.

There is always this feeling of dissatisfaction and ungratefulness that Giamatti has, that the Mule has, that the Actress has, by acc*mulating or acquiring someone else’s soul thinking it would make all things better, that is what the soul storage business is banking on. COLD SOULS has excellent writing, interesting visuals, and provocative ideas that diss human nature. But the ending doesn’t serve any type of definite conclusion but maybe that’s where Barthes plays with our dissatisfaction once again.