COLD SOULS
US, 2009, 101 minutes, Colour.
Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Emily Watson, Dina Korzun, Katheryn Winnick, Lauren Ambrose, Michael Aranov.
Directed by Sophie Barthes.
An unexpected pleasure.
That fine actor, Paul Giamatti, appears here as an actor called Paul Giamatti. He is in rehearsals in New York for Uncle Vanya but is in the middle of an existential crisis. He can't do the part. His agent rings him and suggests reading an article in the New Yorker about an agency which extracts souls and keeps them in storage. Could that be a solution? Paul decides to go for an interview – but insists he does not want his soul stored in their warehouse in New Jersey!.
With that premiss,who could resist?
There is an initial quotation from philosopher, Rene Descartes, about where the soul is to be found in the brain. To enjoy the film and its comic drama about what it is to be soulful and then soul-less, it depends on what one's beliefs are concerning the soul, how material or how spiritual it might be – and can one live without it? And, even more strangely, what if you rented or had a permanent transplant of somebody else's soul? After all, you can live with somebody else's kidney or heart, so...?
While Paul Giamatti is doing angst-ridden so convincingly (with Emily Watson playing his bewildered wife), David Strathairn plays Dr Flintstein, the manager of the Soul Storage company, with as much cheerfully nonchalent realism that could contrast with angst. He has a pleasant answer for every question.
In the meantime, the screenplay parodies the human organ illegal trade and drug smuggling by having Russians do extractions of souls in Russia and use 'mules' to carry the souls as implants to the US. And this from the land of Uncle Vanya and Chekhov. One of the mules gets involved with the renting of Paul's soul (pretending that it is Al Pacino's) for a Russian Mafia boss's wife to become a better actress in a soap-opera.
Paul's deal might not seem all that Faustian and Dr Flintstone, sorry, Flintstein, seems a charming Mephistopheles. The big question is: how does one regain one's soul? And, should one look inside it to see what is really there?
Apparently, writer-director, Sophie Barthes, based her story on a dream she had. And, apparently, she gets upset if questioners and reviewers start to make connections with Being Inside John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – but it is difficult not to with their connecting ideas if not their style of film-making. Be that as it may, Cold Souls is an entertaining comedy drama with the touch of metaphysics.
1.Audience knowledge of and thought about the reality of souls, their existence, as being human, separated from the body, death, after death?
2.The title, the idea of extracting and storing souls? Serious and funny? The quote from Descartes? The location of the soul within the brain? Credibility? The machines, the goggles to look into the soul, the soul and its appearance – and the joke about the chickpea? Storage?
3.The background of contemporary smuggling, body parts, drugs? The rackets, the gangs, the mules transporting the body parts and drugs? Inserting them into themselves? The dangers, Customs and Passport Control? The film-maker using this idea and transferring it to souls? The customers, inserting a soul, renting a soul?
4.The New York setting, the theatre, apartments, the offices of the soul storage company? Moscow and St Petersburg? The laboratories? The musical score?
5.Paul Giamatti and his status, reputation, acting as himself but not himself? Emily Watson portraying his wife?
6.The opening, the rehearsals for Uncle Vanya, Paul and his breakdown, his speech to the director, reactions of the cast? His collapse? At home, unable to sleep, the phone call from the agent, the article in The New Yorker, his reading it, curiosity – and hiding the magazine from his wife? Later giving it to her to read?
7.The office, Doctor Flintstein? His pleasant manner, serious yet comic? Earnest? Paul’s reaction, filling in the documents, the questionnaire, the staff at reception? The issue of souls being stored in New Jersey? The idea, his being persuaded, going through the process, not wanting to look inside his soul? The extraction, the brain looking like a chickpea, the nature of the storage, the cabins, his key? The test, the slides, the actual rabbit, the sexual provocation? His paying by credit card?
8.The effect, his being soulless, people’s reactions to him, his groping the actress during the performance, talking with his wife, her puzzle, going to the restaurant, chewing the celery, his obtuse statements? His wife’s reaction?
9.His decision to rent a soul, going to the office, wanting a poet, Russian? The effect on him and his performance, success? His absences? His confessing the truth to Claire, her bewilderment?
10.The introduction to Nina, the wig, her passport, at control, her being a mule, removing the latex fingertips, at the hotel, going to the office, delivering the souls? The danger for her of the remnants of people’s souls in her own? Going to Moscow, the business, the manager, the Mafia and his manner, his wife and her wanting a soul?
11.US/Russian relationships, Americans performing Chekhov, the background of Russian culture? Contemporary Russia, smuggling souls? The jokes about the actors, the actors’ names and the Mafia wife wanting an American actor’s soul? Al Pacino?
12.Nina, her stealing Paul’s soul, seeing his films, learning about him, going to Moscow? The Mafia boss lying to his wife? Her renting a soul, her perceived improvement in her performance in the soap opera?
13.Nina, her sympathy, Paul and his going to the office again, talk about the soul, trying to find out where it went, Doctor Flintstein and his suave manner, apologies? The plan, meeting Nina, going to Russia? Touring the plant, Dimitri and the interview, his attitude? Following the wife, at the hairdresser’s and the confrontation? The abduction and the extraction of the soul?
14.The process, Nina urging Paul to look at his soul, seeing Olga, the woman from whom he had rented the soul, the glimpses of her life, the audience having seen her already, knowing her and her fate, her suicide? The nature of soul, his soul completely white, the trapdoor, going down, seeing his loving wife there?
15.The doctor, the investigation by Inland Security, everything on the move? The information about Nina and her soul, Paul’s decision?
16.Paul and his helping Nina, going to the beach?
17.The elements of parody? Paul Giamatti and his being a good sport to take on this role? His interpretation of midlife and existential crisis, change? The nature of soul and soullessness? A drama, a comedy, philosophical reflection?
