In the manner of Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, Paul Giamatti stars as himself, an Academy Award winner, who plays the protagonist of Chekhov’s tragicomedy Uncle Vanya.
Unfortunately, the role takes a debilitating emotional toll on Giamatti. His agent then suggests a dubious solution to the actor’s woes. The Soul Storage Company, a new tech start-up, can physically remove the soul and keep it in cold storage, liberating customers from all their anxiety.
Initially, the de-souling alleviates Giamatti’s depression, but it clearly leaves him soulless—effectively dead inside. He suddenly loses his talents and humor as an actor and a husband.
When Giamatti returns to reclaim his soul, he finds his safety deposit box empty. Turns out, the actor has fallen victim to the burgeoning criminal enterprise of soul trafficking. Ironically, after trying to escape the Russian angst of Vanya, Giamatti finds himself in St. Petersburg, on the trail of the smugglers who stole his soul.
Clearly inspired by Charlie Kaufman’s Malkovich script and maybe a bit of Sleeper-era Woody Allen, Barthes’s premise is undeniably clever, but her pacing sometimes fails to keep up. Still, co-producer-cinematographer Andrij Parekh fashions a distinctive visual style for Cold Souls, capitalizing on the stark, frozen Siberian peninsula and sterile retro-ultra-modern sets.
One would certainly expect Giamatti to be convincing playing a fanciful version of himself, but his shrewdly understated performance is surprisingly memorable. He effectively anchors the film, giving soul, if you will, to Barthes’s frosty tale. Among the supporting cast, David Strathairn brings a nice comedic flair to the soul-extracting Dr. Flintstein. In contrast, Emily Watson seems trapped in the underwritten role of Giamatti’s wife Claire and the several soulless characters are by necessity cold and unsympathetic.
If nothing else, the idea of Giamatti playing Vanya sounds like a hot ticket Broadway producers should explore. His intriguing screen work brings redemptive humanity to Barthes’s coolly stylized vision.
Cold Souls opens this Friday, August 7th at the Sunshine and Lincoln Plaza Theaters.
Joe Bendel blogs on jazz and cultural issues at www.jbspins.blogspot.com and coordinated the Jazz Foundation of America's instrument-donation campaign for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
