There are movies that are basically two hours of plot to set up something that happens in the last ten seconds. “6 Souls” starring Julianne Moore is one of them.
It’s not a bad thing to do, though one does feel a bit cheated at the conclusion.
I was a bit surprised to see that the film has a 4% critic rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a perfectly functional supernatural thriller that moves in the same territory as “The Exorcist” and “The Skeleton Key.”
I give the broad strokes of the plot. Moore’s character, Cara, is some kind of psychologist who specializes in disproving the claims of multiple personality that some felons base their defense on e.g. “I didn’t kill her – the voice in my head did!” In the opening moments, she quashes the hopes of a killer on death row, allowing his execution to proceded.
Her father, who runs some kind of asylum, introduces her to his newest project, a good-looking young man who seems to house two distinct personalities.
Except two grows to three and then four and so on. And Cara’s sleuthing reveals that these personalities all match once-living people. You can see where this is going.
And there were several twists I saw coming, but that’s really not the horrible crime some folks make it out to be. I’d rather a plot make sense and be a bit predictable than be an onslaught of nonsensical “shocks.”
I was a bit bothered by a scene where the authorities let someone walk into a room with a maniac while holding a nail in their pocket. I would think they have metal detectors to prevent such things.
The look of the film reminded me very much of David Fincher’s color palette, where every scene is some muted shade.
I’m an atheist, so these “forced to choose between faith and science” themes often leave me cold, but the way it was played out in “6 Souls” was dramatic and kind of moving. There are no atheists in foxholes.
