Cold Souls (15)

GRAPPLING with a weighty stage role, actor Paul Giamatti (played by actor Paul Giamatti) goes to a hi-tech medical firm to have his soul extracted, in this droll sci-fi comedy.

This makes it much easier for him to perform. But it also turns him into an insensitive chump. (He tells one pal, agonising over a relative in a coma: "Why don't ya just unplug her?") So he decides to have it re-inserted.

Then Paul finds out his soul's been nicked by a Russian 'soul mule' (Dina Korzun) who flogs it to a foreign soap actress, and all manner of highbrow wackiness ensues. Cold Souls runs along very similar lines to a Charlie Kaufman film.

But while it's nowhere near as complex as Being John Malkovich or Adaptation, it's still a sharp, witty watch - and Paul Giamatti's great in what must be the easiest pay-cheque of his career.

It's an amuse-bouche, for exactly the kind of twerp who uses words like "amuse-bouche".

If that's you, you'll love it. You big ponce.

OUT FRIDAY

This article has 0 comments