With this surreal comedy set in a world where souls can be bought and sold, director Sophie Barthes makes an assured feature debut that should appeal to fans of Charlie Kaufman. Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti stars as a version of himself, an actor who is stressed out over taking on the role of Uncle Vanya. To ease his pain, he has his soul temporarily removed, but it is taken by a Russian actress. Now Giamatti must trek eastward to get his soul back.
Cold Souls Reviews:
4 stars out of 5 -- "[The film] exhibits a self-assurance and a brilliance and should not be missed. Although filled with amusing comedy and irony, the film raises disturbing questions about the 'soul' of modern society and our place in it."-- Cathleen Rountree, Box Office
"Barthes plays this fantasy perfectly straight, with Strathairn utterly matter-of-fact about the process..."-- Tasha Robinson, A.V. Club
"[The] quaintly goofy premise makes for pointedly neurotic SLEEPER-ish fun, not to mention nifty digs at our culture of self-invention."-- Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
3 stars out of 4 -- "There are echoes of the memory-clearing THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND....Compelling in the way of an indelible, dreamy short story."-- Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Mr. Giamatti is the best reason to see the film...his on-screen version of himself goes from soulful to soulless -- and then soulful again -- with the greatest of unease, and he's entertaining in either phase."Wall Street Journal
"[A]n ambitious, elegantly shot, tonally cool first feature written and directed by Sophie Barthes that shows hints of Stanley Kubrick and Charlie Kaufman both..."-- Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"See it for Giamatti's typically adroit performance..."Movieline
"[A] darkly funny, twisty-cool existential tragi-comedy, loaded with smart notions and filmed like a surrealist dream..." -- Grade: A--- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"The film is superbly shot by Andrij Parekh and edited by Andrew Mondshein, but it's the hilarious and heartbreaking Giamatti who provides it with, well, soul."-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Barthes takes her notion and runs with it, and Giamatti and Strathairn follow fearlessly. The movie is rather evocative about the way we govern ourselves from the inside out."-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
This is the only Sophie Barthes video.
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