Cold Souls review
It would be far too coincidental for writer/director Sophie Barthes to have not been heavily influenced by Charlie Kaufman but whereas he (and his accomplished directors) established such depth and intrigue in their films, Cold Souls trundles along with nothing of any real substance taking place.
Paul Giamatti (finely played, as ever, by Paul Giamatti) finds his soul a burden so he has it removed but then feels empty without it so uses someone else’s soul but he can’t really handle it so he wants his own soul back but someone has stolen it so he goes to Russia to retrieve it.
The whole self-reflective pseudo-real world of Being Paul Giamatti along with the Eternal Sunshine of Soul Removal concepts are tantalising but they don’t automatically make a compelling story by themselves and perhaps due to over-reliance on the concepts and lack of focus on building a solid story out of them, the end result is a heartbreakingly humdrum, uneventful film.
19th Nov 2009 | Official site | On IMDb
