Movie Primer: Cold Souls

This is a short primer for the independent dark comedy Cold Souls. It has its limited release on July 7th. You can catch its trippy and funny trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/coldsouls/

The Plot: Actor Paul Giamatti (who is played by the real actor Paul Giamatti) is having a rough time with his life. He is stressed out and feeling low. He reads an article in the New Yorker about a company that will take your pesky soul away and deep freeze it. At first Paul is intrigued but he finds that not having a soul is not all its cracked up to be. Unfortunately the soul storage company has lost his soul on the black market and Mr. Giamatti has to go off to Russia in search of what he has lost.

Star Power: Well of course the start of this show is Paul Giamatti who is pulling a "Being John Malkovich" by playing himself, sort of. Paul Giamatti is an independent movie powerhouse who is getting a lot of exposure as of late. He was John Adams in the award winning HBO mini series and he played a creepy CEO earlier this year in Duplicity.

The movie also has a bunch of great actors in small roles. David Strathairn (of Good Night and Good Luck) plays the doctor running the soul storage company. British actress Emily Watson and Lauren Ambrose (previously seen in the hit show Six Feet Under) also have supporting roles.

The Director and the Writer: Sophia Barthnes is doing double duty for this dark, surreal film. She both wrote and directed the movie. While she has directed two other small films before this film is her first feature.

What to expect: The buzz on this film is pretty good. A lot of good talent is taking a chance on the movie and it did well at Sundance. From the looks of thing this is going to be a thinking man's comedy that will be dark and surreal. From the trailer it seems to be one of those indie ensemble pieces where everyone seems to be having a whole lot of fun. You will get to see Paul Giamatti act really weird and wear a funny hat. What more can you ask for if you are a fan of the actor? It might make you even think a bit about the nature of the soul. If that sounds a little too heavy for you, you might want to skip it.

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