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IMDbPro

A Dangerous Method

  • 20112011
  • RR
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
105K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,932
475
Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
Into the already complex relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) arrives a young Russian woman diagnosed with hysteria (Keira Knightley).
Play trailer1:51
3 Videos
99+ Photos
BiographyDramaRomance
A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
105K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,932
475
    • David Cronenberg
    • Christopher Hampton(screenplay)
    • John Kerr(book "A Most Dangerous Method")
  • Stars
    • Michael Fassbender
    • Keira Knightley
    • Viggo Mortensen
    • David Cronenberg
    • Christopher Hampton(screenplay)
    • John Kerr(book "A Most Dangerous Method")
  • Stars
    • Michael Fassbender
    • Keira Knightley
    • Viggo Mortensen
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 224User reviews
    • 351Critic reviews
    • 76Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos3

    U.S. Version
    Trailer 1:51
    Watch U.S. Version
    International Version
    Trailer 1:48
    Watch International Version
    "13 Hours"
    Clip 0:36
    Watch "13 Hours"

    Photos151

    David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Sarah Gadon and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Sarah Gadon and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Keira Knightley and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method (2011)
    David Cronenberg in A Dangerous Method (2011)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Michael Fassbender
    Michael Fassbender
    • Carl Jung
    Keira Knightley
    Keira Knightley
    • Sabina Spielrein
    Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Mortensen
    • Sigmund Freud
    Vincent Cassel
    Vincent Cassel
    • Otto Gross
    Sarah Gadon
    Sarah Gadon
    • Emma Jung
    André Hennicke
    André Hennicke
    • Prof. Eugen Bleuler
    • (as André M. Hennicke)
    Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey
    Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey
    • Sándor Ferenczi
    Mignon Remé
    • Jung's Secretary
    Mareike Carrière
    Mareike Carrière
    • Food Nurse
    Franziska Arndt
    • Bath Nurse
    Wladimir Matuchin
    • Nikolai Spielrein
    André Dietz
    André Dietz
    • Medical Policeman
    Anna Thalbach
    Anna Thalbach
    • Bathtub Patient
    Sarah Marecek
    • Orchard Nurse
    Bjorn Geske
    • Orderly
    • (as Björn Geske)
    Markus Haase
    • Orderly
    Christian Serritiello
    Christian Serritiello
    • Ship's Officer
    Clemens Giebel
    • Ship's Steward
      • David Cronenberg
      • Christopher Hampton(screenplay) (play "The Talking Cure")
      • John Kerr(book "A Most Dangerous Method")
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The age difference between Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender is 19 years, just as it was between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
    • Goofs
      Sabina Spielrein's closing history is incorrect. Her death, along with her 2 daughters, actually occurred in August 1942, not 1941. Their deaths were only 3 among 27,000 in the massacre that occurred in Zmievskaya Balka, Rostov-on-Don, Russia by German forces.
    • Quotes

      Carl Jung: [to Sabina] My love for you was the most important thing in my life. For better or worse, it made me understand who I am.

    • Crazy credits
      This film is based on true events, but certain scenes, especially those in the private sphere, are of a speculative nature.
    • Connections
      Edited into 365 Days, also Known as a Year (2019)
    • Soundtracks
      Excerpts from Siegfried
      by Richard Wagner, original publication by Schott Music GmbH & Co KG, Mainz, Germany, 1876.

      Adapted by Howard Shore, published by South Fifth Avenue Publishing, 2010.

    User reviews224

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    Frustratingly pedestrian.
    As a long admirer of David Cronenberg, I eagerly await each of his new films as if I am a young child on Christmas Eve. When announced that his new film, A Dangerous Method, had him working with Michael Fassbender and (for a third time) Viggo Mortensen, two of my favorite actors, as well as Keira Knightley and Vincent Cassel, I thought I must have been dreaming. Adding on that the film was going to be an exploration into the relationship between Carl Jung (portrayed by Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), the gods of psychoanalysis, and this had the makings for Cronenberg's masterpiece. So one can only begin to imagine my dismay when, after a promising first act, A Dangerous Method turned out to be the most inordinately tame and pedestrian Cronenberg film in over thirty years.

    David Cronenberg made a name for himself in the film community thanks to his studies into dark, controversial topics of sexual obsessions and fetishes, so a story depicting the works of Jung and Freud seemed like a perfect fit for him, and I was hardly able to process how lazily he approached the minds of these men. The first act felt like punch after punch (in a good way), with very stern, rapid dialogues detailing the sexual desires of Sabina Spielrein (Knightley), a new patient of Jung's. Despite Knightley's hilariously hammy performance, which had me close to fits of laughter every time she unhinged her jaw or thrashed about the room hysterically, each scene sizzled with sexual tension and was nailed with precision by Fassbender's stoic portrayal.

    Anyone who knows the history of the story (or has seen the trailer) knows that Jung and Spielrein eventually engage in a sexual relationship of their own and I believe the release of this tension between the two of them is where the film starts to fall of it's axis. After the incredibly intense and erotic first act, featuring a scene where Jung runs a test on his wife (Sarah Gadon) that is as gripping as anything in cinema this past year, the whole thing begins to fizzle out when that tension is released and it only becomes more and more flat as it goes on.

    Whenever Jung and Freud are in the same room together the film begins to light back up, as Fassbender and Mortensen engage in a tete-a-tete for the ages, both men succumbed by their intelligence and arrogance to the point where they refuse to see the other as their equal despite their claims to be doing just that. Watching these two marvelously talented actors bounce of each other, it's devastating that the rest of the film couldn't measure up to their skill, and that half of their scenes interacting together are done through them opening notes from one another. The story spreads it's time (quite distractingly) between the Jung/Freud dynamic and the Jung/Spielrein one, and it's in the latter that it completely misses the mark.

    Once that sexual tension is released, the chemistry between these two practically ceases to exist and each scene feels like a dull exercise in the standard infidelity plot line. When the film reaches it's final act and there are scenes of forced attempts at emotional payoffs, it's impossible to feel anything because I wasn't able to feel anything from the relationship the entire time leading up to it. There's no real progression in their relationship on anything but a surface level and as a result the payoff falls completely flat.

    It certainly doesn't help that, for all of the controversial eroticism in his career past, Cronenberg takes on the carnal moments of this story with the lazy banality of someone much inferior to himself. Several of the dialogue-driven scenes sizzle with a sexual intensity, but when matters are actually taken to the bedroom they are hit with a dullness that would be impossible to believe came from Cronenberg if he didn't have his name stamped on it. In a year that gave us Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, the most Cronenbergian film I've seen that didn't come from the man himself, it's unbelievably disappointing that this one is so removed from the standard this genius deserves. It's unlike anything he's done before, and I mean that in the worst way possible.
    helpful•99
    35
    • Rockwell_Cronenberg
    • Jan 28, 2012

    FAQ5

    • Is 'A Dangerous Method' based on a book?
    • What ended up happening to Otto Gross?
    • What ended up happening to Sigmund Freud?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 10, 2011 (Germany)
      • United Kingdom
      • Germany
      • Canada
      • United States
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Schloss Belvedere - Rennweg 6, Vienna, Austria
    • Production companies
      • Recorded Picture Company (RPC)
      • Lago Film
      • Prospero Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 39 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS

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