A DANGEROUS METHOD Movie Review – Carl Jung, Meet Sigmund Freud
Mention Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung and I’m there, but if you decide to do a film about their relationship, I’m double there. And then on top of it you get Michael Fassbender to play Jung and Viggo Mortensen to play Freud? Then forget it, it’s signed, sealed and delivered. So as you can tell it’s no surprise that I was looking forward to seeing A DANGEROUS METHOD.
The film follows Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) as he takes on a new patient, the unbalanced Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). Jung starts treating Sabina using Freud’s (Viggo Mortensen) method, but soon feelings develop between the two, which threatens Jung’s life and work. In addition, his questioning of Freud’s method starts to create a rift between them.
I really enjoyed A Dangerous Method, but it’s definitely not a film for everyone. For one thing, it is a character study and if the subject matter is not something that interests you, then you might not enjoy it as much as I did. But if you are fascinated by Freud and Jung as much as I am, then you are going to love this.
Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen are absolutely fantastic, and while Keira Knightley’s performance feels a bit forced at times, she definitely holds her own amongst these two. And let’s not forget Vincent Cassel, who although has a brief appearance, makes a big impression.
The pace of the story, as you can imagine, is pretty slow but not in a boring way. It allows us to explores these characters, Jung in particular and their passion for their work.
I would recommend A Dangerous Method to anyone who has any interest in psychology and would like to find out a little more about Jung and Freud. However, I should warn you that if you are looking for something cheery to go see over the Holidays, this might not be it, on the other hand if you are looking for a film that will make you think, this might quite possibly be it.
A Dangerous Method hits limited theaters today, November 23. You can watch the trailer here and find more of our coverage here.
