What little story or character there is In City of Sylvia goes like this: a man sits around in cafés looking at women. He draws them and sometimes follows them, apparently in search of a girl he once knew, the titular Sylvie. The meaning or purpose of this dreary film are left left oblivious to us. What does abound are longing shots of women’s shoulders and hair, and of the protagonist looking somehow vacant and profound. During the Q & A, the director tried to justify his lack of content by stating that he wanted viewers to read into and create a character for his blank protagonist. But with so little to go on, is this really that interesting a task? And don’t we essentially have to do that every time we’re unfortunate enough to have Orlando Bloom staring dumbly at us through his wooden eyes? There’s precious little you can get from this film that you can’t get from sitting in a café yourself, and at least that way you get fresh coffee
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