Sibyl

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!

This movie is much more confusing than it needed to be which makes the immersion in the story very challenging at the start without any big payoff for the effort. It's just a way to try and make the movie seem more interesting than in reality is. Well shot and acted.

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.

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?

Sibyl wants to stop her psychiatry practice in order to write the next great French novel. But not before she agrees to treat a pregnant girl who is in love with a famous actor. Fast forward a few weeks, and Sybil is suddenly in the middle of a Love triangle (or is it trapezium?), that opens old wounds and make her question her perception of reality. Who needs therapy now?

Independent director Justine Triet has been praised by the critics for her previous works that underline social and political problems. Here we deal with a crisis of a domestic nature and one wonders if the film is based on the director's personal experience. SYBIL cannot be called feminist even though it features plenty of strong women making tough choices. The problem is that those female characters are all despicable and hardly inspire any sympathy from the viewer. The story is patchworky and, while intriguing, it takes a long time to get to the meat of things. Erotic scenes while well made seem irrelevant and the plot itself is hard to define - it's like it was re-written in the last minute. And we are left wondering what it was all about.

Filled with great performances from all Involved, and with its decent cinematography, the movie mostly suffers from the story's inconsistencies and a lack of focus. Overstuffed with ideas which are plenty but never quite make it whole the film struggles to find its identity and borderlines on any piece of entertainment's worst enemy - which is boredom!