Official Synopsis
After the death of her husband, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Cara Harding’s (Julianne Mooore) faith in God has been shaken, but not her belief in science. In an attempt to open her up to accepting unexplainable psychiatric theories, her father introduces her to Adam (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a patient with multiple personalities, who takes on some of the physical characteristics of his other personalities. Cara quickly discovers that Adam’s personalities are murder victims, and the more she finds out about him and his past, the closer she and her loved ones are to becoming murder victims themselves.
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6 Souls is one strange film. It has some really great scary moments that it depends on to pull it through its incredibly confusing storyline. The film starts off with Cara, a woman who has just lost her husband and is coping by working constantly, showing off her ability to break down a patient’s psyche in a multiple homicide case to prove that the murderer knew what he was doing when committing the crimes. It’s a fantastic beginning that really establishes her tough life and what she will do to protect others from monsters like the guy she’s breaking down. After that, the story switches gears to establish her close relationship with her father, played by Jeffrey Demunn, who is constantly trying to keep Cara active through cases he works on with sick patients. Hoping to really challenge her intellect, her father introduces her to Adam, who suffers from a multiple personality disorder.
Things get weird from this point on.
Adam is revealed to contain multiple people within him that not only act completely different from one another, but also contain unique memories and facts that are particular to each one. When this is revealed in the film, the creepy factor hits the roof. You’ll be thinking, wow this is a pretty cool take on multiple personalities, and doubly intriguing because they’re going to have a great explanation, right? I mean, one guy has color blindness and one guy doesn’t. Something epic is creeping up on the reveal of the film, so epic in fact that the audience won’t see it coming. Pretty intense, right?
Well, you would think so.
After the revelation that Adam’s personalities are more than just illusions in his mind, the movie starts floating around without much suspense from Adam’s character. Sure he crops up unexpectedly now and then, and sure bodies start cropping up in places he’s been, but the story never really finds solid ground with putting these pieces together. All we see is the end results of his actions, but never get a full explanation of how/why of it. It’s as if the movie flatlines a bit trying to figure itself out. Then things start getting a bit messy, as Cara discovers the reasons for the multiple personalities, as well as Adam’s actions. After the big ‘reveal’ for Adam’s motivation (and his past), the movie pulls in Cara’s family for added intensity. It’s almost padding for suspense the storyline can’t create on its own. I don’t mean to harp too much on this, but it goes by so messily and quickly that you’re left shaking your head wondering where you missed the hills on the story’s roller coaster ride.
To put it bluntly, the first half of the film is a great setup, but acts two and three just absolutely cannot keep the ship straight.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t give anymore details, but just know that the film provides a half-hearted, yet gruesome explanation for Adam that will leave you scratching your head a bit. I’m still not completely sure of why Adam is the way he is, but I’m still creeped out. That alone makes me want to watch the film one more time, though I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to fully get what the filmmakers were trying to do with the storyline.
Story aside, Julianne Moore played her heart out as Dr. Cara Harding. She believed in the role and absolutely stole the show. Second to her was Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Adam. The kid knocked it out of the ballpark by switching between very different people in the blink of an eye without breaking away from form. He was impressive on the screen, even when the story failed his character. The efforts of both will keep you glued to the film, which says a lot about their acting. They are the reason to watch this film.
Overall, if you like horror and suspense then you should at least give this sucker a rent. It has enough elements in there to make it worth your time, but if you’re looking for a solid horror/suspense/thriller fix then this might not be your cup of tea.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it looks great. There is no compression or color banding issues. The colors, when they’re not tinted blue or overly shot dark, seem to come through pretty crisp and clear. It’s a very solid Blu-ray release for the HD junkies. It’s one of the best parts of the release and it helps intensify the scenes that will scare the shit out of you. The audio is really great as well, as it will help you jump a bit when you need to jump.
Sadly, there aren’t any features. I would have loved to see commentary or a featurette, but what can you do?
