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Cold Souls (15) Dir: Sophie Barthes Writer / director Sophie Barthes was apparently inspired to write this Jungian-themed film after dreaming of Woody Allen discovering he has a soul like a little chickpea. Paul Giamatti stars as himself rehearsing for a production of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya and suffering stress from both the part and his career path. To give him respite, a friend directs him to a magazine advert for soul storage at a clinic, run by Dr Flintstein (David Strathairn). The business has found a way to store souls and trade them. Giamatti has his stored, giving him a detachment that takes off the stress. When divested of 95% of his soul (they leave residues behind), Giamatti’s lack of sensitivity leads to some disastrous acting, a disrupted sex life with his wife (Emily Watson) and some hurtfully inappropriate comments to her friends. Needing to undo the aloofness in his life, he finds that the clinic has in its catalogue the soul of a Russian poet, which he hires until he finds himself troubled by the soul’s harrowing memories. Meanwhile, Nina (Dina Korzun), a mule who smuggles souls between New York and St. Petersburg, finds that her boss’s actress wife wants the soul of an American actor. Giamatti’s stored one is the nearest thing available. It is stolen and transplanted into the wife, who thinks it belongs to Al Pacino. When Giamatti realizes that the best solution to his situation is to have his own soul back, he discovers that it has been taken to Russia and he travels there with Nina to recover it. Cold Souls is often compared to Being John Malkovich, in that an actor plays himself in a world like ours, but where reality shifts. The two are similar at times, but Cold Souls has a flatter, more detached feel until the pace lifts in Russia; it takes on a slightly Woody Allen edge that shows up in Giamatti’s tortured introspection and understated humor. As philosophy meets celluloid, comedy meets tragedy and sci-fi meets the everyday, Cold Souls is entertaining and original, but not gripping. Although the film looks at the commoditization of life and asks questions about what the soul brings to humanity, the issues it raises never overwhelm the simple, surreal story. Derek Walker
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