A Dangerous Method

Year: 2011
Genre: Drama
Directed: David Cronenberg
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassel, Sarah Gadon, Andre Hennicke, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Mignon Reme, Mareike Carriere
Production: Recorded Picture Company

A Dangerous Method follows the interweaving lives of Carl Jung (Fassbinder), Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) each either using and/or being effected by psychoanalysis. While at first, the two heir doctors Freud and Jung, are intrigued and delighted by each others insights things become complicated when Jung and his patient Sabina begin a torrid love affair.

It is clear from the get-go that the cordial relationship between the two doctors won't last long. Whether it is for academic, social or religious differences is open to interpretation. In fact a lot of this film is open to interpretation which becomes a bit of a handicap. Freud seems worried his work will be discredited due to growing anti-Semitism yet no conflict is brewed to make this evident. Freud urges his colleague not to dedicate time to tangential areas like alchemy, religion and mysticism yet Jung seems to never really pursuit such ideas, at least not on screen. So in place of conflict we are left with snippets of intellectual discussions and a bawdy love affair that is not entirely convincing.

Don't get me wrong, Fassbinder and Knightley work wonders with a mediocre script but what should be a sensuous slow boil is actually near clinical story plotting with little to make either character likable or their affections understandable. This in turn makes Jung's decisions to break the rules of doctor patient relations not to mention his own definitions of morality all the more frustrating to watch.

How can someone take psychoanalysis seriously when its two most famous proponents are portrayed, A: as a self-aggrandizing, dogmatic, political pragmatist or B: a naïve, hypocritical neophyte? Perhaps that's the point. 200,000 of introspection has got us nowhere to understanding who we really are and Freud's 'dangerous method' is yet another shot in the dark. In one scene Sabina's character exposes the irony that Jung "cured" her using Freud's methods. Yet a few scenes earlier, Freud himself says "curing" someone is impossible. Perhaps all three need another trip to the sanatorium.

Final Grade: D-