Cold Souls
Samuel Goldwyn Company, The | Release Date: August 7, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatWhitney Borup
I love love love love loved Cold Souls. That might be because I love love love Paul Giamatti. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Darkly funny, twisty-cool existential tragicomedy, loaded with smart notions and filmed like a surrealist dream. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Barthes takes her notion and runs with it, and Giamatti and Strathairn follow fearlessly. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Paul Giamatti - that huddle of broiling instincts, out-of-control impulses and aggravated ardor epitomized in "Sideways" - you feel his soul's absence as dearly as its presence. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Cold Souls has its flaws, and it threatens to sag into a Paul-like morbidity, but Giamatti’s anxious mien and unspectacular shamblings have never been better deployed. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Freer
Anchored by a great Giamatti performance, Cold Souls is built around a terrific idea and has serious fun with it. It also marks Barthes as a filmmaker to watch. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
You'll laugh till it hurts at Cold Souls. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The low-key satire would have benefited from more of a back story to Giamatti's character and a clearer sense of his relationship with his wife. But what we do get is compelling in the way of an indelible, dreamy short story. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
He's (Giamatti) terrific throughout, although the movie, which is more clever than funny, sometimes resembles second-tier Charlie Kaufman stuff. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The chief pleasure to be derived from watching Cold Souls is that it's a journey into the unexpected. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie turns what could have been a tedious meta-movie exercise into a sincere dour farce. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Cold Souls entertains on its own terms, delivering irony and suspense as Giamatti discovers that his soulless self is a terrible, terrible actor. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJustin Lowe
Giamatti is aptly cast, playing his own persona with awkward anxiety and suitably skewed humor. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
An amusing slice of existential whimsy with an Eastern European bent, Cold Souls posits a world in which humans can have their souls extracted and implanted in each others’ bodies. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAnthony Kaufman
It may be only in the film's last ambiguous, evocative image that Barthes and Parekh finally transcend the material and arrive at something beautiful and ineffable. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
In this attractive, smart-enough, finally un-brave movie Ms. Barthes peeks at the dark comedy of the soul only to beat a quick, pre-emptive retreat. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Works precisely because its ambitions are somewhat mellow; this isn't a relentlessly high-strung picture. Barthes and Giamatti do more with less, turning the idea of excessive navel-gazing into a kind of game. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
Somewhere between the rabbit-hole absurdist comedy of Charlie Kaufman and a navel-gazing Woody Allen film is the somberly humorous indie Cold Souls. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
If not always coherent, at least compelling. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
The premise seems profound, but the claustrophobically inert execution lacks reach or imagination. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The movie still works as a clever little "Twilight Zone" episode with great production values, and it's an impressively ambitious debut for Barthes. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Giamatti is masterful. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Giamatti tries very hard to put over Cold Souls -- some of his reaction shots are priceless -- but it's going to leave some people, well, cold. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Giamatti is one of the few guys who could take a joke about a chickpea-sized soul and make a meal of it. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The more elaborate the plot becomes, the sillier it gets. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Cold Souls begins to lose its comic focus, however, when Giamatti comes to realize that he needs his soul back. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleJustin Berton
Only a temporarily compelling conflict for a feature-length film. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Paul Giamatti plays himself in a dark indie comedy that's distinguished by a sci-fi theme and surrealistic touches but ends without a payoff. Read full review
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