Cold Souls, a new film starring Paul Giamatti, deserves to be saved by today’s audiences.  The actor plays himself rehearsing the play Uncle Vanya. While writers can sometimes suffer from the well know “writer’s block,” actors can lose their nerve struggling to find “the character”. Giamatti suffers actual physical pain as his doubts persist about how to play the part.

An offhand remark from his agent about a company that stores souls looks like a solution to his angst. Soon he’s filling out forms in a slick stainless steel office in Manhattan. There’s even a sales tax break if his soul gets stored in New Jersey.

Once freed of his immortal spirit, Paul is soon finding Chekhov a riot much to the dismay of his cast and director. Retuning to the clinic he rents a Russian poet’s soul and the play is a success.

A Soviet subplot involving the selling of souls on the black market leads the actor to Moscow. Everything seems to turn out for the best with some fine support from a talented ensemble of actors.

One idea is that the soul originated with ancient Germanic tribes who believed the word was related to the sea where all the departed rested.  Turns out we might be able to put our precious immortality in a safe deposit box before we lose it.

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