After intense rehearsals of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, Paul (Paul Giamatti) is emotionally drained. He stumbles upon a "Soul Storage," a private lab offering New Yorkers something intriguing: a relief from the burden of their souls. Paul decides to get his soul extracted, only to discover that it has the shape and size of a chickpea. After a failed attempt to live and act without his soul, he rents an alleged Russian poet's soul, which guides him into a strange dreamlike world. Things take an unexpected turn when he decides to get his soul back and meets Nina (Dina Korzun), a Russian soul mule, who illicitly transports souls from Russia to America.
Special Agent Matti
Cold souls makes a good companion piece to the Phillip Seymour Hoffman movie Synecdoche, New York. They are both self-indulgent dramas about The Theatre™ and how hard it is to be fabulous. They both star stars of The Independent Scene™. They both laugh at pretension in the performing arts. The difference is that this film has Russians in it.
The drama movie Cold souls is directed by Sophie Barthes and stars Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun.
M (Infrequent coarse language)
101 minutes (1:41 hours)
Film: 12 November 2009
