Review of A Dangerous Method (2011) by Gil8Ert — 27 Feb 2012

Probably better named 'A Dangerous Jawline', the film itself I found to be rather hampered by Keira Knightly and her performance which I just could not buy into at all. In the first instance I felt she was trying too hard, and later down the line I found myself wondering what accent she was trying to adopt. During the opening scenes I did feel in actual physical danger from the aforementioned Jaw - had it been in 3D I would have been scared witless. These points aside the film itself I felt actually lacked a little in explaining the psychological theories to any great extent, it just brushed over the theories rather than going into any detail. But that is a personal dissapointment rather than a lacking in the film itself.

Fassbender was fantastic as usual, as was Mortensen, and Cassel was typically stand out - but I found the film did not hold my attention like I was expecting it to. It is not a terrible film - it looks nice and it has fantastic actors in it - but I found Kiera's performance to be illusion shattering and the story to be just not that interesting. I would have prefered some more in depth explanation of the approaches to analysis by the two very different practitioners for a more educational film, the stories of scientific rivalry or becoming too involved with patients have been done many times before, and better.