Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent adaptation.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

As another reviewer stated, the secondary title is a bit misleading (to put it mildly). You probably won't find your way to happiness watching this (though I'd be happy for anyone who actually does). This is a collection of snippets about how Yalom sees life and what he has to say about our journey/stay on this planet.It's actually fundamental and anyone who thought about things might have come up with most of his thoughts anyway. But it's a nice touch and might be a good way to learn about Yalom (someone I hadn't heard of before myself). To get real help though, you should be visiting an expert, someone who can guide you personally to your happiness or at least help you cope with things/issues/problems. It's a short documentary and it might be worth a watch ... it's up to you

Let me start this review by saying that I did not know the protagonist from this documentary before watching it. I would not go so far to say that I know him now really or understand the way he practices psychology, but nonetheless it was an interesting film. The most important thing is that you go see it to learn a bit about Yalom's approach. Don't expect it to be a therapy session. Sadly the German title could let you think it is. The translation is pretty much "Yalom's instructions for happiness". However, the film is much more about how Yalom himself found said happiness. We learn about his long-lasting marriage and that none of his 4 children managed the same for example. We learn about his earlier years in the profession and also, for example, how his bad experiences with another psychologist made him better as he realized this is not the way he wants to practice his profession. You can also grow from negative experiences.Apart from that, we learn about the way he cures people by seeing re-enacted therapy sessions. This is not a documentary where I feel the need to watch it again anytime soon, but it still something I would recommend, especially to people with interest in the field of psychotherapy.

This biographic documentary about the life and work of renowned psychotherapist Irvin Yalom is a sensitive, slow and touching collection of interview sequences and film segments covering the whole span of time from the immigration of his parents until now.Unlike the secondary title ('A Guide to Happiness' - who came up with this one, marketing dept.?) suggests, the movie doesn't reveal any formerly unknown 'secrets' on how to live a happy life, in Yalom's interviews he rather touches a few of the difficult riddles that are an integral part of our human existence, like the ambivalences of freedom, the possible meaninglessness of life, the fear of death and others. And while we become eyewitnesses of the deep connection and long marriage of Yalom with his wife Marilyn, we are also surprised to hear that all of his children have already been divorced.So all in all, the movie gives us some insight about the personal life and professional striving of Dr. Yalom, who in his work has built a bridge between psychotherapy and philosophy, illustrating that one can't go without the other: psychotherapy should face the big philosophical questions about our existence - potentially fearsome questions that may be suppressed for some time, but that will have to be dealt with in our lives at some point ... and philosophy as a humanistic science that is rooted in the unexplored depths and uncertainties of the human mind.I would recommend watching this movie to anyone who likes movies that make you think about life, and of course to anyone who is interested in Yalom's work or a fan of his books.