Sibyl - Therapie Zwecklos

Actors can be ... difficult. But Psychotherapists can be insane too ... wait what am I trying to say here again? I guess I am trying to make a point ... like the movie is. Kidding aside, people in general can be tough to read and even tougher to "cure" - especially when the one doing the curing has issues of her own.

A strange little movie that can, but that also is strange to say the least. You have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot and go with the flow. Having a love for making movies and understanding what can go on behind the scenes (it almost feels like someone is doing their own curing by doing the movie - the writer, the director, producers ... all of the above and more?) ... Interesting aspects and quite a lot of sexual tension! And one of the best drunk acting performances put on film! A strange drama/thriller, that will appeal to some and will annoy others - but it is very well done!

I was somewhat skeptical before entering the theater, thinking it would turn out to be another boring film about white people surrendering themselves to hordes of therapists, french woman suffering from romantic distress and so on. However, the writer/director cleverly managed to create a layered portrayal of the protagonist shrink and the world she lives in - blending in her present life, her past, the fiction novel she's writing and the movie her patient stars in. The script is mature, quirky and unpredictable enough to handle these four layers without becoming pointless and confusing. The performances are stellar, especially of Sandra Huller as the temperamental film director.

There is no dearth of past french films handling similar material. Yet somehow this film appears fresh and profusely entertaining.

I can't recall seeing a film with so many good and great elements: cinematography, acting, a good deal of great dialogue, that was assembled into such a let down of total experience. It is like observing a kid who is smart, has everything, goes to he best schools -- yet goes nowhere in life.

I don't know where this project went wrong. Was it deep flaws from the beginning and they went ahead without resolving them, or was it some kind of creative fight in post production, perhaps about comedy vs drama as the goal in editing?

This film is a mess of unsavory characters and bad, ridiculously unlikely decision. Some of the acting is good, the storyline is silly, the sex gratuitous and graphic. There is not one interesting character. Despite the attempt to give some background to why sybil is so messed up (an absent mother from whom she distanced herself and a sister who gives sybil's children lectures on how to be manipulative) it's a fail all around.

It could be a kind of french Mulholland Drive. The materials where there: the affections of the past, the psychological insight, the fiction inside the fiction, fantasies, memories...

A failed writer retakes her old dream to write a beautiful novel, but her lacks of inspiration block her... until she met an actress, who tells her about her troubles. Quickly Sibyl sees a paralelism with her past, about her frustrated love with a man that bring her a passion and then another trauma related with a son they had. Sibyl lost her literal aspirations and her love and in ten years she discovered herself having a life that is safe, with some client as therapist and a husband that gives her estability. But none of these are now valid items to her.

The materials, as I said are good, but by one side the dialogue is too melodramatic, sometimes the scenes turns cartoonish and melodrama doesn't fits very well with the tone of the film, a psychologial drama. The scenes are also too repetitive, once we understand her old past love was very passionate, we don't need three more scenes of kissing and stuff.

By other side, the other characters, aside form Sibyl, doesn't feel with depth, something is missing with all of them.

It's a pity, because the idea is very good. A lost opportunity.