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6 Souls
Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: July 2, 2013.
Director: Bjí¶rn Stein, Mí¥ns Mí¥rlind
Cast: Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Conroy, Nathan Corddry
Year: 2010
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The Movie:
Directed by Bjí¶rn Stein and Mí¥ns Mí¥rlind in 2010 but not released until 2013 when it went straight to video courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment, 6 Souls stars the lovely and talented Julianne Moore as a forensics psychiatrist named Cara Harding. She leads a pretty normal life for the most part, but then she takes on a new patient named David Bernberg... or Adam... or Wesley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)… see he's got multiple personality disorder. When it comes to pass that some of the personalities that inhabit David are murder victims, things start to get weird.
Initially, Cara figures that David's personalities are coming from various traumatic instances that occurred in his past. The deeper she digs, however, the more she finds as the ties to the dead start to become more obvious. As her research continues, it turns out that the actual David Bernberg died some time ago, at least according to his mother (Frances Conroy). Cara becomes determined to figure out who this person really is and how he came to be in this condition in the first place.
This one is a bit of a mess. There are some great ideas at work here and the basic concept behind the film is an interesting one. Julianne Moore is her typically dependable self, she plays the 'smart lady' really well and brings enough personality and quirk to her character that we can completely buy her in the part. Rhys Meyers is also pretty solid here too, playing the different personalities of his character in interesting ways and relaying a believable sense of turmoil and genuine confusion at times, enough so that we feel for him even if we inevitably suspect him of something most foul.
The problem is that the script is a bit of a mess. As the story line plays out we're quite literally bombarded by one red herring after another, and this happens so often that it starts to get pretty ridiculous. Now, with two directors and a boatload of producers ultimately tied to this project, who knows how much of this stems back to Michael Cooney's original screenplay. As stated, there are great ideas here. This should be have a taut and suspenseful thriller and there are a few moments here and there in the movie were it definitely approaches that. Ultimately though, the story will throw us a random curveball shortly after bringing us to the edge of our seat, and then we're pulled right out of the movie again. It happens time and time again throughout the movie and by the time it's all over and done with there are loose ends aplenty and the film suffers for it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
6 Souls looks about very good on Blu-ray, framed here at 2.35.1 widescreen and presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Detail is very strong and black levels are good. Colors are accurate during the brighter scenes but there aren't a lot of those and much of the movie takes place indoors and in the dark. As such, often times it's pretty bleak looking, but it definitely suits the material. This is in keeping with the tone of the film and it more or less works in its favor. Color scheme aside, skin tones look good, nice and natural, and there are no issues with compression artifacts to note. This feels like an accurate representation of what the filmmakers were going for here.
The main audio option is a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix in the film's original English language, though removable subtitles in English SDH and Spanish are also included. No complaints here, really. The audio here is definitely solid, particularly during the scenes that have a bit more activity in them. Dialogue stays clear and there are some very effective moments that use the surrounds to nice effect. The levels are well balanced and as you'd expect from a brand new movie like this there are no problems with hiss or distortion and this is an impressive and effective sound mix that suits the storyline rather well and succeeds in helping to successfully build some good atmosphere and tension.
Extras? Nothing but a menu and some chapter stops.
The Final Word:
Decent performances, good cinematography and a solid tone can't help save what is otherwise a pretty mediocre script. Anchor Bay offers the movie up in great shape on Blu-ray but devoid of any extras of note. If you're a hardcore Moore or Rhys Meyers fans you'll probably find this passably entertaining but otherwise, this is pretty mediocre and never quite reaches its full potential.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
