Rating: 7.5/10

Writer: Sophie Barthes
Director: Sophie Barthes
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Emily Watson, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun
Studio: The Samuel Goldywn Company

We are going to get this out of the way right now, okay? COLD SOULS is not ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. Get it? ETERNAL SUNSHINE is a modern masterpiece, but it is also so deeply sad that I can’t stand to watch it in its entirety more than once a year; it’s physically painful for me to get through. COLD SOULS is a wicked little indie that is absolutely rooted in the more humorous side of removing questioningly tangible items from your body. The fall out from Paul Giamatti (as Paul Giamatti!)’s decision to temporarily remove his soul is bizarre and dream-like and achingly funny.

Paul’s greatest fear is that his soul is empty, so when David Strathairn’s soul-removing Dr. Flintstein asks Paul if he wants to see inside his soul while they remove it, he balks spectacularly. No, no, he does not want to see inside it, thankyouverymuch. His reaction to seeing his actual soul once it’s been removed is the same, but he eventually relents, and his soul is revealed. It’s utterly hilarious. The soul-reveal scene in COLD SOULS is easily one of my favorite scenes in film from the last year – it’s insanely funny, and so very weird, and I refuse to spoil for anyone what exactly Paul’s soul looks like. It’s a tangible item, I’ll tell you that, and it’s edible (later, we meet a soul that looks like a pink jelly bean).

Paul’s main reason for having his soul removed and stored (albeit, temporarily) is to relieve the pressure and pain from playing Uncle Vanya on stage. He’s taken the role too much to heart, and it’s impaired his ability to act properly, on stage or in life. Once his soul is removed, Paul vacillates between a disinterested boredom and misplaced confidence. His new takes on Vanya are exceptional, nearly slapstick in their amusement. But, as it turns out, not having a soul sort of sucks for Paul, and it negatively effects, you guessed it, his performance on stage and in life. That’s when we find out about the flipside of soul removal – soul rental – and that’s when the fuzzy subplot about Russians that’s been sliced into Paul’s story finally makes sense.

It’s not important how exactly Paul’s soul ends up in Russia, or whose soul Paul rents while he tries to retrieve his soul, this is all stuff left up to Barthes’ witty script and Giamatti’s deeply expressive face. The film deflates a bit in the transition from Paul’s acquiring a rented soul to his trip to Russia to get his back. We eventually pick back up when Paul finds himself on track to getting his soul back, while also realizing that maybe it was a good soul the whole time, maybe there was never a reason to take it out and store it in a jar.

COLD SOULS is special because it takes a wildly imaginative plot that could easily slide into overwrought drivel and makes it sharp, witty, and clever. It’s not a film for everyone, but is a film for anyone who has ever wondered how much their soul could possibly weigh, considered it deeply for a moment, and then laughed.