Film Review: 5 Souls (2011)

SYNOPSIS:

When a disgraced architect awakens from a coma, he is confronted by an agent of evil with a proposition; kill five people to reconcile his life’s misdeeds and live, or decline the offer and die. As he proceeds with his grim assignment and begins collecting the fifth and final soul, he learns that his pact may have eternally horrifying consequences

REVIEW:

My first impression of the movie 5 Souls is that it looked good and the acting is well done, but that’s really all the positive things you can say about it. The plot line seems more like two different ideas made to come together at the last minute, as if they couldn’t make up their minds with which plot line they wanted to follow. This gets very annoying as you switch back and forth between two different characters, which seems like there is never going to be a connection between. This movie ultimately becomes a morality tale, as Noah’s (Ian Bohan) soul has to choose between following the advice of an angelic character, Jessica (Kristina Anapau) and the fallen angel, Yusef (Steven Schub). This leads to some great monologues that, if played upon, could have turned this movie around, even if they are hard to hear.

The movie does start on a high note, as we watch a little girl and her mother seemingly get crushed by a collapsing building. Then it’s a quick cut to Sam (Steve Bacic), looking worn-out and maybe even a little drugged, as he grabs his bottle and gets a little morning pick me up. Then he goes for his trusty revolver and puts a single bullet into to the chamber. Now he is playing a one person version of Russian roulette. Obviously, he doesn’t kill himself or the movie would be over before it really begins. This scene ends with Sam watching a newscast of a building that has just collapsed.

The opening scene is intense, and leaves you wanting more from this story line, but instead it takes you to the second main character, Noah, and we watch as he gets inoculations for his upcoming trip with is fiancé, Miranda (Samire Armstrong). Noah then has a bad reaction to the drugs and falls into a comma, also while watching the same newscast about the building on TV.

Then we go back to Sam, already on the scene of the building, picking through the ruble. He gets questioned why he is there by a police woman, Sara (Allison McAtee), he makes up a story that she believes. As he goes back to looking through the ruble, another police officer takes notice of him, and recognizes who he is, and escorts him off the property. This is not the kind of thing you would expect a man, who only hours before was trying to kill himself, to do. I was hoping he would put up a little more fight, act a little crazier, but instead he just walks away quietly.

And then once again we switch back to Noah, who is now lying in a hospital bed, with Miranda at his side. She leaves and he “wakes” up, leading in one of the better characters, Yusef, the fallen angel. He gives Noah a choice, either he kills 5 people, and collects their souls, or Yusef will kill Noah himself. Once again we switch back to Sam sitting in a bar, working on some papers, the naïve Sara comes walking in and goes over to strike up a conversation with him, which leads to their personal and professional relationship.

Quick switch back to Noah and Yusef, as Yusef is trying to convince Noah to make his decision. He does and waits for the next time Miranda leaves him alone, he gets out of bed and walks down the hall to room 223, where a man is laying asleep in his bed. Noah proceeds to suffocate the man with a pillow and backs out of the room in tears as a nurse and doctor both walk by him. Now this brings up the question of is this real or all in his mind, or could he just be a spirit walking around, able to kill people. He walks back down the hall and walks into what he thought was his room, this is where he meets Jessica, the good angel, and the movie starts to feel like a cartoon, where the person has a tiny devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

This is how the movie continues to go, switching back and forth between Sam and Noah, Noah trying to choose if he wants to kill the next person, as Yusef tries to persuade him and Jessica trying to talk him out of it. Then you switch back to Sam and watch as he will risk everything to get revenge on the people who made the building that collapsed and killed his daughter. You try and feel for both of the characters, but with the constant switching of plots, it makes it hard to really like either one. The best written and most fun character to watch is Yusef, the fallen angel, who is one of the main villains. So you really don’t want to root for him, but you almost have to.

There are a couple, but predictable twists that comes into play near the end of the movie, the last soul that Noah has to collect, the connection between everyone, and even the final scene, but it’s not enough to save a confusing and dull movie.

5 Souls (2011)