Review of A Dangerous Method (2011) by Gareth R — 15 Aug 2012

This British/German/Canadian co-produced historical film directed by David Cronenberg and starring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel was somehow what I expected. The screenplay was adapted by writer Christopher Hampton from his 2002 stage play The Talking Cure, which was based on the 1993 non-fiction book by John Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method: The story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein. And adapting stage plays is not an easy job...

The story is set on the eve of World War I, and describes relationships between Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, Sigmund Freud, founder of the discipline of psychoanalysis, and Sabina Spielrein, initially a patient of Jung and later a physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts. Intellectuals can be boring in some cases - and I think there were a few instances we could describe the screenplay of this movie with the same words. Good acting could not compensate for the holes in the story patched with a "coloured thread" (Christoph Waltz was initially cast as Sigmund Freud, but was replaced by Viggo Mortensen due to a scheduling conflict, Christian Bale had been in talks to play Carl Jung, but he too had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts and originally, the role of Sabina Spielrein in the screenplay was written for Julia Roberts - I wonder how would they do this?). Some of the biggest minds of the psychology were sometimes acting like mindless human beings which makes them easier to understand but tarnishing the shine of their shiny "intellectual armour" at the same time.

If you like clinical dramas where characters are most of the time "all talk" more than "walk" - there is one for you!