Remember the bookend scenes of "Edward Scissorhands" where Winona Ryder, then 19 years old, attempted a falsetto accent underneath mounds of latex? Her voice still had a youthful vigor that made this portrayal seem awkward. 10 years later, she stars in "Lost Souls" as a teacher who battles Satan's human host. This time her tone of voice suits the wary dimensions of the role, even if it does not validate her choice of scripts.
Lost Souls - R
Starring:
Winona Ryder and Ben Chaplin
Directed by:
Janusz Kaminski
Now playing:
Janusz Kaminski
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"Lost Souls" is another entry in the end-of-the-world genre that has pervaded the market in the last year. Directed by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, responsible for draining the color from Spielberg's meta-dramas "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", the film is a patchwork of impressive photography masquerading as a story. Kaminski indulges the viewer with images of lips whispering into ears and daggers nearly piercing corneas, but isn't able to coax a sensible structure out of the screenplay.
Ryder is Mia, a woman with a history of demonic possession who now soothes her nerves through educating children and smoking cigarettes. The decoding of numbers transcribed by a possessed mental patient leads Mia to a crime novelist (Ben Chaplin), who doesn't believe in evil so much as "malignant narcissism." Nevertheless what Chaplin doesn't realize is that on his 33rd birthday he will become Satan incarnate, as Ryder tries to prevent this from happening.
"Lost Souls" is not as bad as, say, Schwarzenegger's "End of Days." This film is more subtle, and its portrayal of the Catholic Church doesn't resort to caricature. Yet there's something flaccid about a horror movie where nothing happens, and "Lost Souls" feels like a diluted "Exorcist." Chaplin spends most of the movie moon-eyed over his fate, while Ryder consorts with him so much that one would be hard-pressed to determine which theological side she's on.
This is the type of movie where Philip Baker Hall makes a guest appearance in the Honorary Villain role. Ryder stands around baffled, wondering how parts in "Beetlejuice" and "The Age of Innocence" led to this. "Lost Souls" culminates anticlimactically, as Ryder outsmarts the Prince of Darkness and heads back for her Pall Mall's. After the artificial gloominess of this movie and the feigned brightness of "Autumn in New York," I'd need a cigarette too.
