A DANGEROUS METHOD (R)
When: On general release from March 29
Review: Stephen A Russell
CONTROVERSIAL director David Cronenberg (The Fly, Crash) has long been obsessed with horror and sex, but recent years have seen him expand his repertoire, most notably with 2005’s Viggo Mortensen vehicle, the Oscar-nominated A History of Violence.
His latest, A Dangerous Method, is an altogether different beast, exploring the rather complicated relationships between Mortensen’s egomaniacal Sigmund Freud, father of the “talking cure,” his protege Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and the latter’s patient, soon-to-be mistress and eventual equal, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley).
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a film that revolves around the birth of psychoanalysis, A Dangerous Method is an extremely talky film. Great swathes of the movie take place in either Jung or Freud’s office, with the pair either discoursing in person or via letter. Freud even remarks, on their first meeting, that they’ve unknowingly conversed for 13 hours straight. Not much else happens really. That’s not to say it’s boring, just unusually wordy.
Christopher Hampton’s dialogue-driven script is adapted from his play, The Talking Cure, which explains the tight focus on a handful of locations, and also draws on John Kerr’s historical biography, A Most Dangerous Method.
Keira Knightly impresses as Spielrein, in spite of a rather dubious Russian accent. The opening scenes depicting her writhing and grimacing in Jung’s care are startlingly confronting. Fassbender is less impressive but still engages as a man torn between his admiration for Freud, but increasingly turned off by the latter’s fixation on the sexual. Freud is likewise horrified by Jung’s fascination with supernatural experience.
Mortensen gets a raw deal in terms of screen time yet easily commands all of his scenes. Freud and Jung’s battle of the egos is fascinating. A shared scene on a cruise to New York allows a glimpse into the collapse of their personal and professional relationship, and the divergent nature of their belief systems, giving birth to the industry we know today.
Lusciously shot, with commendable attention to period detail, without getting lost in all the frills, it’s certainly easy on the eye, but Cronenburg never truly hits his stride with this fascinating if strangely muted film.
