Film review: Cold Souls

Published on Thursday 12 November 2009 18:01

COLD SOULS (12A) *** DIRECTED BY: SOPHIE BARTHES STARRING: PAUL GIAMATTI, EMILY WATSON

FRENCH writer/director Sophie Barthes delivers an amusing, if slight entry into the post-Charlie Kaufman arthouse world with Cold Souls, an existential comedy in which Paul Giamatti plays himself as a tortured actor who undergoes a medical procedure to have his soul removed and kept in cold storage. Disappointed to discover said soul is the size of a chickpea, Giamatti nevertheless finds acting much easier with out it, even if the director and co-stars of his upcoming production of Uncle Vanya are perplexed by his sudden uselessness. Realising he needs the angst his soul supplies him with, he sets about retrieving it – only to discover it has been stolen and given to the aspiring soap star girlfriend of a Russian mobster. It's a precious, whimsical premise, but while Barthes has some decent jokes, and a wonderful facilitator for those jokes in Giamatti, its underlying insights aren't all that profound and this ultimately feels more formulaic than it should.