A Dangerous Method – movie review

Release date: 10 February 2012
Certificate: 15
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen

What's the story? In 1900s Europe, Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) falls out with his Swiss protégé Carl Jung (Fassbender) over the latter's affair with an hysterical young woman he is treating (Knightley).

What did we think? Adapted from a play by Christopher Hampton, this wordy period drama demands the viewer's full attention as it addresses mental illness, the human psyche and the ethics of doctor-patient relationships. Yet it rewards our patience with terrific performances, fine dialogue and the arresting sight of Keira Knightley's bottom being spanked.

Extreme gore and explicit sexuality have long been the trademarks of Canadian film-maker David Cronenberg. Recently, however, his work has taken on a more cerebral bent, as displayed by this fascinating study of how the founding fathers of psychiatry came to be divided over a beautiful patient.

Even when dealing with Freud and Jung, however, Cronenberg can be relied upon to introduce an element of perverse otherness, represented here by the sado-masochistic urges that have turned Knightley's tortured Sabina Spielrein into a convulsing wreck.

It's a big ask for Keira to believably convey the wrenching physical symptoms of her character's mental imbalance. Get past her disconcerting opening scenes, though, and A Dangerous Method becomes a thoroughly engrossing exploration of the contrasting schools of head-shrinking its early champions championed.

What that boils down to is an intriguing battle of words and wits between Mortensen's urbane, cigar-chomping Freud and Fassbender's restless, headstrong Jung, intellectual heavy-weights motivated as much by their personal ambitions and desires as complex theories. If all that sounds highbrow, that's probably because it is. Yet it's not without humour, largely supplied by Vincent Cassel as a sex-obsessed hedonist who persuades Carl to give free rein to his innermost impulses.

Verdict: Analyse this.