Cold Souls: DVD Review

Cold Souls: DVD Review

Cold Souls
Released by Madman
Rating: M
Paul Giamatti (complete with sad sack eyes and jowly cheeks) plays Paul Giamatti, a fictionalized version of the actor, who's struggling with his part in Uncle Vanya. Clearly Chekhov's play is resting heavy on him - and one day, he sees an ad for a Soul Storage place which piques his curiosity.

So, with the ad's slogan "Is your soul weighing you down?" he heads to see if he can find some relief.

What he actually finds is a surgery which can remove souls and hold them in special units (or if they want to avoid tax, can be shipped to New Jersey) to give their owners a new lease of life.

Giamatti undergoes the treatment - and things get more complicated for him when a soul trafficking group from Russia ends up stealing his soul to satiate a Mafioso style don's girlfriend. Giamatti ends up facing the possibility of heading to St Petersburg or remaining soulless for the rest of his life.

What can you say about Cold Souls? It's slightly odd, slightly heart warming and entirely different. Once again, Giamatti shows why he's a talented actor and wins over the audience with this existential type role which could have backfired.

It's an interesting premise which is well executed (aside from feeling a little long at the end) but Cold Souls offers up some interesting ethical and soulful dilemmas.

Rating: 6/10