REVIEW: Soul

Pixar's latest film, Soul, dropped on Disney+ Christmas day, another regrettable casualty of the virus. This time around, we follow a hopeful musician bursting with enthusiasm. Music is an oddly appropriate metaphor for the film: both certainly touch the outer rim of mankind's emotional faculty, but good luck summarizing the experience to your friends.

Joe Gardner is a music teacher at a public school whose enthusiasm for music is spilling out of the walls of his classroom. Opportunity strikes Joe the same day that misfortune does, and a fatal accident lands him in a celestial plane of existence known as "The Great Before," where souls are developed and finessed before being sent to earth to experience human existence. Joe is saddled with mentoring 22, a soul sapling who has settled in The Great Before for several hundred years and has no intention of ever giving mortality a chance. But in 22, Joe sees a chance to return back to earth and fulfill his purpose if he can just show her what makes life worth living.

The story also takes a surprising turn, not at all foreshadowed in any of the advertising material, and I will respect the creative team's decision to not reveal the big twist and let you discover it for yourself. All I will say is that this wrinkle in the story has a very Pixarian flavor.

The film as its own article is one of the best cases for animated film in general, showcasing the best of what the medium can achieve. The scenes taking place on earth are rendered with loving attention to detail. The film makes reality look more lovely by leaning into its quirks in a way that only animation can. Every frame feels like velvet in color and texture. Then there are the non-physical landscapes of the film where the fluidity of computer animation is on full glorious display. The film's greatest accomplishment is the way it gives shape and color to things intangible.

This is also where the film gets maybe too pleased with itself. There's a fine line between "abstract" and "undercooked," and unfortunately the film slips into the latter more often than it ought to. The film reads like a safari tour of the human psyche, and mind you it's a lovely tour, but more than once the film sacrifices personality for intrigue.

The film thinks that character arcs are ripe ground for individual interpretation for some reason. In the best stories the audience has a transparent understanding of the character's flaw, even (especially?) when the character doesn't, and the audience should have this understanding before the plot kicks into motion. That wasn't the case here. What exactly was Joe lacking before his time in The Great Before? It's not clear. Something about Joe liking music a little too much? For that matter, what did Joe even learn from his experience? Joe's arc is like most everything else in this film: thoughtful in the abstract, but lacking in necessary texture.

The film is led by Jamie Foxx as Joe and Tina Fey as 22. Both characters are caught between their idealism and the impersonality of real life, but each in his or her specific way, and their respective voice talents were essential in helping negotiate that line. Meanwhile, Rachel House reprises her role as the overzealous cop from The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. The ensemble also includes Phylicia Rashad, Graham Norton, and Daveed Diggs.

This was a delicious thought experiment from Pixar, but someone needs to tell them that there's no shame in letting the audience see their notes every once in a while.

--The Professor

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