Five to ten, or so years ago, if I heard that David Cronenberg was making a film called ‘A Dangerous Method’, I would have braced myself for something scary, something deeply sinister or troubling.
What we get here, however, is repression.
Working from Oscar winning Christopher Hampton’s screenplay, based on his own 2002 play “The Talking Cure”, Cronenberg delves into the mirky waters of the early days of psychoanalysis, a radical contemporary theory of investigating the human mind, established Sigmund Freud (Mortensen). Carl Jung (Fassbender) follows in Freud’s footsteps, and a deep friendship develops between the men. When Jung blurs the line between doctor and lover with his patient Sabina Spielrein (Knightley), however, the relationship between the men gradually deteriorates.
We’re brought into the film on a cacophony of madness as Ms. Spielrein is brought to Jung’s psychiatric hospital. From the outset, Knightley’s performance didn’t sit well with me. Her madness, showing itself here in the form of painful-looking protruding jaw movements, incoherent stuttering and a strange, American sounding, Russian accent, seemed entirely over-acted to me. Perhaps its a matter of taste… And so her performance goes throughout the film. What seemed miraculous to me is her progression from patient to doctor (and lover) occurs in, seemingly, no time at all. This rushed feeling casts a shadow over the whole picture and is perpetuated by a fragmented, episodic plot arc. Every scene in this film seems to begin ‘in medias res’, something which evidently does not work.
The relationship between Jung and Spielrein, is undoubtedly an interesting one, punctuated here with moments of extreme passion and sexual tension. Jung’s repression of his sexual urges, due to his committal to his fragmented, impersonal marriage, is the basis of the drama of the film, yet sometimes fails to pack the necessary punch and falls flat, emotionally.
The friendship of Jung and Freud breaks down after a series of protracted letter-reading scenes (I fucking hate letter-reading scenes) in which it become apparent to Freud, that Jung has been engaged sexually and, subsequently, emotionally with Ms. Spielrein. From here-on the film seems to meander the rest of the way, leaving myself, at least, an un-interested observer of events, rather than an emotionally invested piece of the dramatic experience.
The film is set over a number of years, but in hindsight, feels like it took place over the course of a week or two. This sense of perspective is what strikes me as immediately lacking in the film as we jump from pregnancy to pregnancy and drama to drama in no time at all.
It is rare when you read in a review that a film would’ve have benefitted from being longer, but that can certainly be said of this. It feels, at least, thirty minutes too short.
As far as positives go:
Dir. David Cronenberg
Written by Christopher Hampton
Synopsis: A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen.
Run-time: 1h 34mins
What we get here, however, is repression.
Working from Oscar winning Christopher Hampton’s screenplay, based on his own 2002 play “The Talking Cure”, Cronenberg delves into the mirky waters of the early days of psychoanalysis, a radical contemporary theory of investigating the human mind, established Sigmund Freud (Mortensen). Carl Jung (Fassbender) follows in Freud’s footsteps, and a deep friendship develops between the men. When Jung blurs the line between doctor and lover with his patient Sabina Spielrein (Knightley), however, the relationship between the men gradually deteriorates.
We’re brought into the film on a cacophony of madness as Ms. Spielrein is brought to Jung’s psychiatric hospital. From the outset, Knightley’s performance didn’t sit well with me. Her madness, showing itself here in the form of painful-looking protruding jaw movements, incoherent stuttering and a strange, American sounding, Russian accent, seemed entirely over-acted to me. Perhaps its a matter of taste… And so her performance goes throughout the film. What seemed miraculous to me is her progression from patient to doctor (and lover) occurs in, seemingly, no time at all. This rushed feeling casts a shadow over the whole picture and is perpetuated by a fragmented, episodic plot arc. Every scene in this film seems to begin ‘in medias res’, something which evidently does not work.
The relationship between Jung and Spielrein, is undoubtedly an interesting one, punctuated here with moments of extreme passion and sexual tension. Jung’s repression of his sexual urges, due to his committal to his fragmented, impersonal marriage, is the basis of the drama of the film, yet sometimes fails to pack the necessary punch and falls flat, emotionally.
The friendship of Jung and Freud breaks down after a series of protracted letter-reading scenes (I fucking hate letter-reading scenes) in which it become apparent to Freud, that Jung has been engaged sexually and, subsequently, emotionally with Ms. Spielrein. From here-on the film seems to meander the rest of the way, leaving myself, at least, an un-interested observer of events, rather than an emotionally invested piece of the dramatic experience.
The film is set over a number of years, but in hindsight, feels like it took place over the course of a week or two. This sense of perspective is what strikes me as immediately lacking in the film as we jump from pregnancy to pregnancy and drama to drama in no time at all.
It is rare when you read in a review that a film would’ve have benefitted from being longer, but that can certainly be said of this. It feels, at least, thirty minutes too short.
As far as positives go:
- Fassbender and Mortensen are good; solid, if not amazing, but there are some nicely formed sequences and scenes between them.
- Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross is an interesting character, an introducer of anarchy into Jung’s world.
- The music is good too. Particularly the opening/end credits piece.
- Stylistically, the film looks good (the most fundamental of requirements from any film nowadays), with the exception of Jung and Freud’s arrival in America… I’ve seen better visual effects on Ros na Rún.
Dir. David Cronenberg
Written by Christopher Hampton
Synopsis: A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen.
Run-time: 1h 34mins
