Soulmate (2013)

Directed by: Axelle Carolyn
Country: UK

Movie Review: Belgian actress-turned-director Axelle Carolyn brings us a mystery tale, involving humans and ghosts, which effectively catches the eye but heavily disappoints as a story. Audrey tries to cope with the death of her husband and finds a secluded cottage in rural Wales to recover from a suicide attempt. At night, she starts to hear unusual noises and witnessing unexplainable occurrences that lead her to conclude that there is a presence in the cottage. She resorts to the only people she know in the nearest village, Theresa and her husband, who evasively try to convinced her that there are no ghosts and the problem could be just in her head. Actually, the ghost of the former owner of the cottage, Douglas Talbot, starts to appear in a human form and talk to her. A beautiful friendship begins when they find several pains in common, but the melodramatic tones and boring conversation never awoke me from its melancholy, and not even the pale face of the ghost was sufficient to stir the insipid developments. What caught my attention were the beautiful shadowy images and autumnal atmosphere outdoors, sometimes well combined with the score of violins and cellos. A nearly perfect atmosphere that became worthless, given the dull story and failed attempts to create humor, thrills, seduction or anything else. Anna Walton’s performance was far from authentic, but nothing compared to the lousy presence of the unconvincing ghost. “Soulmate” lacked intensity, and was nothing more than a naive exercise on horror/thriller that doesn’t take us to any part of this world or the other.