This trailer for Cold Souls should help appease those women who always complain about Hollywood casting  hot women opposite schlubby guys. Paul Giamatti’s wife is played by Emily Watson, who’s almost his perfect equal in weird-lookingness.  I’d like to think if they had a kid it might look like Steve Buscemi, or William H. Macy. Anyway, the film very much has the look and feel of a Charlie Kaufman film (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine), but actually comes from first-timer Sophie Barthes.

After intense rehearsals of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” Paul is emotionally drained. He stumbles upon a “Soul Storage,” a private lab offering New Yorkers something intriguing: a relief from the burden of their souls. Paul decides to get his soul extracted, only to discover that it has the shape and size of a chickpea. After a failed attempt to live and act without his soul, he rents an alleged Russian poet’s soul, which guides him into a strange dreamlike world. Things take an unexpected turn when he decides to get his soul back and meets Nina, a Russian soul mule, who illicitly transports souls from Russia to America. [QuietEarth]

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s:  Plot of a Simpson’s Episode + Chekhov = Indie film.

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