Discovering the Sole Purpose of Life: Review of Soul (2020)

Synopsis of Soul (2020)

Soul (2020) follows the musical life of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school music teacher, pianist, and jazz aficionado. His love for music, particularly jazz, was ignited when his Dad took him to a concert as a boy. It was love at first chord. All his actions since then were geared towards getting his big break as a musician.

Joe finally gets the break he has been dreaming about when one of his former students, Curly Lemont-Baker hooks him up for a gig with saxophone sensation, Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett). Unfortunately, things go south. Joe falls through a manhole in his excitement, is mortally wounded, and finds himself on the stairway to the Great Beyond.

Joe vehemently refuses to go into the light. In his frantic attempts to escape, Joe ends up in the Great Before. All attempts to go back into his earthly body through the earth portal in the Great Before prove abortive. In his many attempts to avoid going to the Great Beyond, Joe unintentionally finds himself mentoring 22 (Tina Fey), a little jaded soul that has no intention of living.

Things take a turn for the worse when the duo fall back to earth but in the wrong bodies. Like every man with a dream, Joe is obstinate and tries everything he possibly can to get back into his body and do his gig. In tirelessly running after his life, Joe unwittingly shows 22 that this living business wasn’t so bad after all. Walking a mile in Joe’s shoes and too-tight pants showed her that though flawed, life was filled with rich and fulfilling experiences that could only be appreciated when felt.

In the course of living, 22 finds her spark by accident. She’s thrown into a flurry because even though she has found her spark, she doesn’t know what it is. Joe on the other hand is mad as a hornet at the botched attempt to go back into his body. Careless words are flung between the two, Joe is finally able to go back thanks to 22’s earth pass while 22, convinced she is not worthy of living becomes a lost soul. In his third attempt at life, Joe learns a lesson that would…