Hi, Burl here to review a movie about the early days of
psychoanalysis! It’s a funny subject for a director like David "Fast Company" Cronenberg to tackle,
but then again maybe not, for it seems these days that Cronenberg is willing to
tackle just about anything! He always sort of has, I think, and that’s one of
the reasons I rate him so highly as a director!
A Dangerous Method
has two main, frequently intersecting stories: the building and subsequent
dissolution of the personal and professional friendship between Carl Jung and
Sigmund Freud; and the love affair between Jung and his spitfire patient,
Sabina Spielrein! Ha ha, she enjoys nothing more than a sound spanking, and for
this reason, in early 20th Century Switzerland, she is considered
quite loony!
Jung, as played by the robot from Prometheus, Michael Fassbinder, is a chilly character indeed,
perfectly suited to a David Cronenberg picture! Freud is played by
Cronen-stalwart Viggo Mortensen, and I have to say I really liked his
performance! All the acting was quite good, but old Viggo stood out, with the
possible exception of his third-act pratfall! Ha ha, whoa, whoa, boom! And
Kiera Knightly indulges in an awful lot of gurning as Spielrein, which may or
may not be an accurate portrayal of mental annoyance, but sometimes threatens
to jump the cliff into silly!
Ha ha, at times the movie seems a bit like a dumbed-down pop
history lecture, and Cronenberg’s typically unflashy style doesn’t meld well
with that! But in spite of this clash, or maybe because of it, the movie whips
up a mighty strange atmosphere all its own, and any movie that can manage that
gets a light shoulder punch from old Burl!
That’s something Cronenberg very often manages to do in his
pictures, and another reason I’m such a big fan of his! Another nice thing
about the picture is the shift in partisanship the viewer might experience!
Entirely notwithstanding your loyalty to their respective psycho-philosophies,
at the beginning of the picture Jung seems a reasonable chap, earnest and
well-intentioned, and Freud something of a stodgy and self-congratulatory
fuddy-duddy! By the end Jung is a crackpot and a jerk, and Freud a gentle,
avuncular smoker of cigars! Ha ha, and by the time the curtain comes down,
Sabina Spielrein, especially given the tragic end to her life, which is revealed
to us by postscript titles, is entirely sympathetic, even if at the beginning
of the picture she reminds you of an old girlfriend you’re well rid of! Ha ha!
It’s a bit of a Masterpiece Theatre slog here and there, but
this is undercut by all sorts of sly Cronenbergianisms, more and more as the
picture progresses, until it comes to seem quite subversive! It’s also
decidedly uncommercial, another point in it’s favour! I give this potato three
vicious cuts to the face!
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