It is better to limp than to walk on crutches that are about to break.
What is it, this French film, released on the screens with the light hand of a representative of the famous cinematic clan Michel Seydoux, whose granddaughter niece Lea we now see on the screens quite often? If in particular, it is about a woman who decided to quit her career as a model and become a writer, but the loved one did not support her, but on the contrary, abandoned, wrapping a carousel of sleepless nights, prolonged depression and attempts to commit suicide. If in general, it is about how fragile the emotional world of a woman in love is, and how easy it is to destroy it, but it is difficult to glue the fragments together.
The whole film is like one continuous stream of emotions, which is easy to join if you have a high threshold of empathy. Inconsistency, egocentricity and infantilism of the main character, Penelope, can not but irritate. Judge for yourself: capricious, subject to spontaneous stupid ideas, obsessive to the impossible and can not cook. Oh yes, and constantly wonders why it's men who leave her. In general, such a collective image of a woman from sexist sketches, only diluted with a manic-delusional component - at least include in a textbook on psychiatry. Definitely, such an indiscriminate image of a woman on the screen can only be embodied by another woman - in this case, it is inexperienced, judging by filmography, Philomena Esposito.
And yet, if you endure this continuous stream of absolutely illogical thoughts and actions that lasts more than an hour, you can see a good ending, which even has something magical - not in the usual Hogwarts sense, of course. It is rather about a strange fusion of music (by the way, Bregovic gave a great soundtrack!), a visual series (a mysterious walk through the night forest) and the atmosphere, when the irritation of the heroine gives way to Buddhist calm and, finally, curiosity and sympathy. Where does she lead an unexpected friend and what awaits them at the end of the journey? Just the obvious conclusion that sometimes you can become happy by understanding your own conflicting feelings, stopping feeling sorry for yourself and doing something useful for another person. This is quite everyday, but still magic - the rebirth of the heroine redeems the whole waterfall of delirium, in which the viewer has to plunge.
It is not surprising that the main role went to Isabel Ajani, who knows how to change from film to film, who is beautiful even in such a sad image, but besides her I want to note Clementine Celarier, as well as rarely, but accurately and slightly comically getting into the frame Fabrice Lucini - he seems to voice (or rather, plays face) everything that the viewer feels during the listening to Penelope monologues. Therefore, it is impossible not to warn: if you are unpleasant to contemplate the emotional outbursts of the above kind, then you should think about whether this is your film and whether it is worth spending time on it. Otherwise, you should get acquainted with the tape at least for the sake of the final catharsis.