"Syk pike" or "Sick of Myself" is a Norwegian film at its core if we look at the actors and language this is (mostly) in, but overall it is a co-production between Scandinavia and France. This film that runs for slightly under 100 minutes has achieved some awards recognition too, almost exclusively for writer and director Kristoffer Borgli, but on one occasion also for lead actress Kristine Kujath Thorp. There I can already say that I am not (knowingly) familiar with the cast here, but I checked and saw that Anders Danielsen Lie is also on board here, one of Norway's most successful actors at this point. He only plays a minor character, a doctor in fact, which is fitting because he also holds a medical degree in real life. He was by the way also in another very successful Norwegian movie not too long ago and the title of that film would also be really fitting for this one here. Here there is even more truth to it if we ignore the ultimate exaggeration for a brief moment. Lead actress Kujath Thorp also has a decent body of work for somebody aged 30 during the time of shooting. There seems to be only one way for her right now and that is up. Writer and director Borgli is also still under the age of 40, approximately my age in fact and he has directed about a dozen short films and music video in the last over ten years, so this is finally his transition to the big screen, to full feature territory even as I do not see small screen releases of 1.5 hours or so in his body of work either. But maybe imdb is also not too accurate in terms of Norwegian television stuff. In any case, what he did here was quite good.
The strong performance from the actress and from everybody else here helped of course. We understand that the protagonist is in a relationship with another man and she cannot deal with his recent success in the world of art and tries to belittle him whenever she gets the chance, for example when she invents a nut allergy at a dinner that takes place to honor him and not only does she cause some trouble early on, even if the waiter's worrying about insurance issues was kinda funny, but she also lets it all out the moment her boyfriend holds a speech. Everybody there thought she was his sister anyway, so also he did not introduce her as who she really was, so you can say that his ego is not much smaller and he is also not taking anything really from her. Look at the moment that involves her sitting on a particular chair in the second half of the film during a photoshoot or when he directs the attention away from her while they were eating with friends and she talks about a dog attack on a customer at her bakery and he belittles her indirectly that it was two weeks ago and she should get over it and then starts talking about his achievements. But yeah, most we see here comes from her and is directed towards him. This also includes a direct reaction from her at the exact same scene when she complains about how Norwegian artists that are putting their art on display in Norway are always using English names for their exhibitions. In general, you could say she just loved any attention she could get. This includes walking through the city in a blood-soaked shirt early one, one that everybody else would have been totally uncomfortable in immediately and changed clothes, but she loves how everybody looks at her. The moment of the dog attack or what we see directly afterwards is a similar moment when she realizes how much attention the severely-injured woman is getting.
Oh, but I talked about the exhibition, sorry for this not being totally in order here, and I liked how they included the name then on the screen, also again towards the end on another occasion. Blink and you will miss it any maybe he did use the Norwegian name for the exhibition after she said that? Not too important anyway. The biggest male character of course has quite an impact too on the protagonist's life, also has the same name like I do, but it is never really about anybody other than Signe. I did not know that name by the way. So yeah, this is categorized as a dark comedy I see and you can surely agree with that as there are quite a few moments in here that will maybe not make you laugh out loud, but at least put a smile on your lips. Or maybe the scene with the guy who sent compromising photos actually to the wrong woman was laugh-out-loud funny how he mentioned some details there, but it was also a scene that was interesting for other reasons. It was one of the funniest, but at the same time indirectly also one of the most devastating scenes because this was the moment where it all started basically with the Russian drug she has been taking. From another perspective, you can still say that in this scene she also encourages the man to not order any of those for himself, so she is not completely void of empathy maybe and she does not want him to develop any effects there. This guy is also brought back in another short scene towards the end when the protagonist tells another woman/friend or "friend" that the guy had died, which is not true and said woman runs into him there and realizes that she has not been telling the truth. We also find out about another bizarre story from the past where the protagonist invented that she lacks one toe, which did not turn out to be the truth. Oh well, still the guy was attracted to her, so this says a lot about him and men in general. I am referring to her mental issues, not the possibility of lacking a toe. Glad if that made you laugh. The scene when the two were having dinner or so with the man's mother was also a bit funny because of how strongly the female protagonist rejected this suggestion seconds earlier. But this kind of "opposite" joke within a brief period of time is something you see often in films.
Anyway, I just mentioned this other woman who thought the guy was dead and she also gets more screen time towards the end. She is the one that the main character turns to in what you could call either an actual call for help of just another depiction of narcissism. The truth lies somewhere in-between I suppose, maybe in the main character's clumsy attempts to understand how other characters in this situation would behave. However, the exact ending then is as happy as it could have been I suppose with all that happened before. Her statement about her boyfriend and that he may have left her (no surprise given her face and his narcissism tendency too) is perhaps not a bad thing by any means given the relationship between the two, even if she does not understand it yet, but that is no surprise either if you look at those moments in which she really enjoyed getting the attention from her boyfriend and what those moments did to her when she was not getting it. Just look at the scene when he is supposed to pick her up from the doctor's office, but he does not come and he is at home talking to somebody about his art and exhibition instead. This is the moment when she really hit rock-bottom and the process of what happens to her body is not fast enough for her. The scratching thingey, so she goes all in and swallows all those pills. Terrible decision. But every horrible moment also results in some comedy you could say if you look at the extreme dialogue with the doctor that takes place only in her head and ends with a reference to the police being ready to arrest her. As for comedy, for once a more harmless form, you can also look at these scenes with the group of people trying to get better. The one who is in charge of the event there was pretty hilarious in fact, especially in the first scene, but her being back with this group, even if there were aggressions too from other patients, was actually a good thing. Just look at her in the state when she is lying on the floor and talking about appreciating life in the end. This is something to build on.
Apart from all the comedy, there are of course the many visually shocking moments in terms of deformations, all that happens to the main character's face, especially after she takes all these pills in one swallow. You could not look at the screen, but also not look away somehow. Then there is the scene when she collapses during this photoshoot and there you could already feel bad for her because of how they were indeed treating her as a bit of an outcast, but as they could make some money with her, they accepted it. Just look at the guy who says that he is not gonna touch this. "This" means "her" in this context when she was down there having something like a seizure and bleeding from her head too. Blood is something you will see on many occasions here. Brings me back to the dog attack scene where she in a way already would have preferred this to be her own blood when she talks to her boyfriend, but also you could see that he was not exactly comforting her either there after what happened. Tells us a bit about him too. They were really not made for one another, at least him not for her, but it was still telling when they basically stick together with their narcissism when the situation escalates a bit during the meeting and eating with their friends. Their narcissism united them. You will also not just see blood here, but also people throwing up here on several occasions. The most engrossing moment of them all, however, was a short dream sequence I think, namely when we see the protagonist have horrible visions of her being (once again) on the ground and her head/face/skin is stuck to the ground and it stays there and a huge open wound at her face is the consequence. So you definitely have to have a solid stomach to stomach this film at times. I think it was a good and creative watch. A great film I would not really call except on maybe two or three occasions where the lead actress really shone, but this was not enough to say it is one of the best films of the year (so far) for me. However, the positive recommendation was also never in doubt. Go see this one.
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