Giamatti Hot in Cold Souls

Paul Giamatti—who plays an actor named...Paul Giamatti—wows critics in Cold Souls, but some say the comedy as a whole, in which a man has his soul removed, leaves something to be desired.

• "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," writes Anthony Lane in the New Yorker.

• "When the film reaches for spiritual depth, it's only in Giamatti's wet, beady eyes that the moments resonate," observes Anthony Kaufman in the Village Voice.
• In this “attractive, smart-enough, finally un-brave movie,” director Sophie Barthes “peeks at the dark comedy of the soul only to beat a quick, pre-emptive retreat,” notes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.

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