An uneasy mix of comedy and ideas, which flatters both itself and its audience that it's smarter and wryer than it really is.

Much of cinema is so predictable these days. Cold Souls isn't.

Smart and funny, it's an amusing showcase for a great idea and the terrific Giamatti.

I love the bizarreness of the premise about a man who feels so heavy by the weight of his soul he puts it into cold storage, and although Cold Souls doesn't quite gel in the final analysis, there is much about this dream-inspired film that is wonderful

Cold Souls is odd and gloomy but the deadpan comedy and introspective musings are engaging and Giamatti's tour de force is worth the price of admission.

Moving from antiseptic clinics to the streets of St. Petersburg, there's something appropriately chilly about "Cold Souls." But if it lacks warmth or a tidy ending, it is very funny, and has plenty of intellect. Much more than a chickpea's worth.

The credible production design impresses, the camerawork offers an exquisite chill and Giamatti is in his pomp.

For those who like Charlie Kaufman on paper but occasionally find themselves a little tested by his self-conscious meanderings in practice, the hilarious Cold Souls is a pleasingly tight and subtle execution of an eye-opening concept.

The writer-director Sophie Barthes does her best to keep things moving, but the film runs out of steam about halfway through.

The pedantic borrowings from Kaufman are obvious. Is there any other "-esque" to be detected? There's Allen-esque, but that comes with the Kaufman-esque territory. Maybe Huxley-esque? The anxiety of influence hangs heavily here.

A trippy premise literally dreamed up by director Sophie Barthes, it is pensive and ponderous, offering a nod and wink to the likes of Philip K Dick and Charlie Kaufman. But it's also peculiarly remote.

What might sound on paper like heavy-handed flick that tries to shove clever-clever ideas down your throat is nothing of the sort. Cold Souls is funny, thought-provoking, often witty and always boasts a tremendous lightness of touch.

Competently made but remarkably smug for a film unique only in its paucity of original ideas.

This clever, surreal comedy is closer to the more whimsical work of a young Woody Allen.

Writer-director Sophie Barthes can't decide whether to take the idea seriously or comedically, with the result that it works neither as comedy nor drama.

While the idea's neat, there's no attempt to explore the weighty implications. It's a likeably quirky movie, mind, with Giamatti's hangdog features meaning a smile's never too far from your lips.

The film itself seems to inhabit the soul of another screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, though it's more a respectful nod than a blatant steal. Barthes shows enough wit and daring of her own to mark her as one to watch.

As a serious exploration of the nature of the soul, it feels incomplete, but it's an entertaining enough existential ramble.

Hugely enjoyable, frequently funny and ultimately thought-provoking comedy with a delightfully absurd script.

Like a collision of Charlie Kaufman and Woody Allen, this dark comedy is a surreal gem.