A number of reviewers and critics have already stated that the 2011 historical drama "A Dangerous Method" - about the birth of psychoanalysis in the beginning of the 20th century - was a film long in the making by its director, Canadian "body horror" master David Cronenberg.
Reviewers and critics have noted that "A Dangerous Method" is admirably restrained - meaning there's no gratuitous sex or extreme violence (common characteristics of much of Cronenberg's past work up until this point). But sex does come up here a lot, though it's mostly through carefully written stretches of dialogue meant to explain the dynamics of human behavior and the human mind. In other words, it's the ideas that mean the most here, rather than their physical signifiers (though there is also some of that here, too).
The film details the professional relationship and personal friendship of Swiss neurologist Sigmund Freud (Cronenberg's go-to veteran, Viggo Mortensen) and a young psychiatrist at the beginning of his career named Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Opening in 1904 only a few years before the outbreak of World War I, "A Dangerous Method" begins with the arrival of a young Russian woman named Sabina Speilrein (Keira Knightley) to a mental hospital in Zurich, where she becomes Jung's patient. (Suffering from hysterics and repressed sexual desire, Knightley's performance may grate some viewers, but it's one of the more truer depictions of mental illness. Her showy theatrics pretty much dominate the film's first half-hour before she settles down into relative coherence.)
Jung begins his care of her simply by talking to her, in applying a newly founded psychoanalytical technique derived from Freud. Jung begins a correspondence with Freud in Vienna, and when the two meet for the first time they have a conversation that will last a whopping 13 hours. At this same time, Jung begins an extramarital affair with Sabina, who eventually recovers from her condition, and studies to become a psychologist herself after assisting Jung for a time in his work. (Jung is also challenged by the arrival of a neurotic young doctor who becomes a patient - Otto Gross, played by Vincent Cassel - who believes that sexual repression is dangerous for the individual and society as a whole; Jung obviously believes in the reverse.) Eventually, though, Sabina and the competing psychological theories of Freud and Jung drive both men apart.
"A Dangerous Method" was written by Christopher Hampton, which is adapted from his own stage play "The Talking Cure," as well as the 1993 non-fiction book "A Most Dangerous Method" by John Kerr. The film has been described as an "intellectual menage-a-trois" by some critics and indeed in the hands of Cronenberg, it is. The film is at its most engaging when the three characters challenge one another with their theories and observations of psychoanalysis. You may not be able to keep up with it all - especially if you're not familiar with the practice of psychology - but it does make for a compelling viewing experience in that regard.
"A Dangerous Method" is David Cronenberg's most transgressive movie yet - after the increasingly mainstream crime-thrillers "A History of Violence" (2005) and "Eastern Promises" (2007), both of which starred Viggo Mortensen. It's a movie about ideas, extremely subtle and restrained, yet deliberate. It is yet another solid entry in David Cronenberg's auteur style.
7/10
Reviewers and critics have noted that "A Dangerous Method" is admirably restrained - meaning there's no gratuitous sex or extreme violence (common characteristics of much of Cronenberg's past work up until this point). But sex does come up here a lot, though it's mostly through carefully written stretches of dialogue meant to explain the dynamics of human behavior and the human mind. In other words, it's the ideas that mean the most here, rather than their physical signifiers (though there is also some of that here, too).
The film details the professional relationship and personal friendship of Swiss neurologist Sigmund Freud (Cronenberg's go-to veteran, Viggo Mortensen) and a young psychiatrist at the beginning of his career named Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Opening in 1904 only a few years before the outbreak of World War I, "A Dangerous Method" begins with the arrival of a young Russian woman named Sabina Speilrein (Keira Knightley) to a mental hospital in Zurich, where she becomes Jung's patient. (Suffering from hysterics and repressed sexual desire, Knightley's performance may grate some viewers, but it's one of the more truer depictions of mental illness. Her showy theatrics pretty much dominate the film's first half-hour before she settles down into relative coherence.)
Jung begins his care of her simply by talking to her, in applying a newly founded psychoanalytical technique derived from Freud. Jung begins a correspondence with Freud in Vienna, and when the two meet for the first time they have a conversation that will last a whopping 13 hours. At this same time, Jung begins an extramarital affair with Sabina, who eventually recovers from her condition, and studies to become a psychologist herself after assisting Jung for a time in his work. (Jung is also challenged by the arrival of a neurotic young doctor who becomes a patient - Otto Gross, played by Vincent Cassel - who believes that sexual repression is dangerous for the individual and society as a whole; Jung obviously believes in the reverse.) Eventually, though, Sabina and the competing psychological theories of Freud and Jung drive both men apart.
"A Dangerous Method" was written by Christopher Hampton, which is adapted from his own stage play "The Talking Cure," as well as the 1993 non-fiction book "A Most Dangerous Method" by John Kerr. The film has been described as an "intellectual menage-a-trois" by some critics and indeed in the hands of Cronenberg, it is. The film is at its most engaging when the three characters challenge one another with their theories and observations of psychoanalysis. You may not be able to keep up with it all - especially if you're not familiar with the practice of psychology - but it does make for a compelling viewing experience in that regard.
"A Dangerous Method" is David Cronenberg's most transgressive movie yet - after the increasingly mainstream crime-thrillers "A History of Violence" (2005) and "Eastern Promises" (2007), both of which starred Viggo Mortensen. It's a movie about ideas, extremely subtle and restrained, yet deliberate. It is yet another solid entry in David Cronenberg's auteur style.
7/10