A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, 2011) wr. Christopher Hampton; Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen
Since I saw this, I've been able to retain nothing more than the memory of Keira Knightley doing that thing she does with her jaw. It reminds me of what the female alien does in ... Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979). Now, if I have the misfortune to see Knightley in anything else (as in Atonement, for example, spoiling a great film), I'm waiting for the monstrous jaw to protrude.
A Dangerous Method presents Christopher Hampton's take on the relationship between Freud and Jung. It includes a female in the main story because of the demands of conventional plotting: there shall be a romance (as well as jeopardy). Historically, Sabina Spielrein was available for inclusion because she did have a romance with Jung for two or three years. Spielrein deserves her own story, but I'm not sure she's essential to this one, as there is plenty of material in the clash between Freud - the discoverer and founder of the 'science' of psychoanalysis - and Jung, his favourite son and heir who was to betray (in Freud's view) the father.
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 28 February, 2017 | Now: 2 January, 2022