As
a psychology major, I was psyched to see this movie (forgive the pun). I’ve
heard the tale of Sigmund Freud’s and Carl Jung’s diverging theories a good
many times over in various psychology classes. Occasionally I have thought it
could have potential to be a good biopic movie. A Dangerous Method (2011) was finally released, and I was anxious
to see it. When I finally got the chance, turns out it was quite different from
what I was expecting.
Suffering
from hysteria, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is hospitalized under the
care of Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Jung has recently begun using the
talking cure developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) on some of his
patients. Spielrein’s psychological problems
are deeply rooted in her childhood and violent father. She is highly
intelligent and hopes to become a doctor, and eventually a psychiatrist. Later,
Jung receives Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel) as a patient. Gross is a brilliant,
promiscuous, and unstable psychoanalyst who prods Jung into the idea of an
affair. The married Jung and Spielrein eventually become lovers. Meanwhile,
Jung and Freud develop an almost father-son relationship. Freud sees the young
Jung as a likely successor and standard-bearer of his theories. A deep rift
develops between them when Jung begins to diverge from Freud’s belief that
while psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems, it cannot
cure the patient.
Viggo
Mortensen as Sigmund Freud is not a casting decision I would have made. I see
him better suited in action roles, like in Lord
of the Rings or Hidalgo. I didn’t even think Mortensen looked the part
of Freud. Once I saw A Dangerous Method
my doubts were diminished. Mortensen
really does look and sound the part. He’s even smoking a cigar in every scene.
Only once in a while did he seem to lapse into dramatic low tone that was more
on par with Aragorn than with Freud.
Impressive
as Mortensen is, the real credit must be given to Keira Knightley. She grants
us a mind-blowing performance that seems to have been influenced by real
patients suffering from hysteria. We see psychological fragility coupled with
an intellectual toughness, which makes for an interesting character. She’s
laughing like a madwoman one moment and frantically crying the next, and
contorting her body in defensive positions. Then we see her slowing growing out
of that state and into a calm and collected woman as her healing progresses.
She played the mental condition so well, it’s disquieting to watch.
The
way the story here is presented is not what I was expecting to see. It’s a very
dialogue driven story. The dialogue is great and interesting, and you get a
feel for Freud’s and Jung’s theories and views. But it’s almost as though most
of the actual story was happening between scenes and we are mostly witnessing
the characters discussing among themselves the real meat of the story after it
happened. The movie does a lot more telling than showing. Granted the story is
about the characters and how events affected them, but I would have liked to
see more of the events themselves to understand why the characters are affected
they way that they are.
There
are two really great parts of the movie that are exceptions. The first part of
the movie shows us Jung using Freud’s talking cure to help Spielrein. It’s
still dialogue driven, but it was fascinating to see Freud’s theory at work. As
a psychology major, it was almost like getting to witness the early
psychoanalytic process as it was in the early 1900’s. Later we get to see Jung
and Freud talking about their views. Freud is advocating the scientific method
while Jung is discussing abstract supernatural concepts, and the tension mounts
as their views conflict. Here we really see events happening; most other scenes
simply talk about events happening.
Freud’s
theories revolved a lot around the idea of sexual repression as the source of
neurosis. As such, sex is discussed frequently in A Dangerous Method, though generally in an academic sense. There
are also several brief sex scenes; you can’t seem make a movie about marital
infidelity without them. The sexual content isn’t there to get a reaction from
the audience; it really is pertinent to the story. But if you are offended by
sexual imagery, discussion, or even partial nudity you may want steer clear of
this film. Also because of this content, I wouldn’t recommend showing A Dangerous Method to young viewers.
A Dangerous
Method
isn’t what I was expecting from a Freud/Jung biopic, but it’s still a good
drama. Even the details in costuming, lighting, and cinematography are
impressive. If you don’t care for dialogue driven stories you may get bored
with it. It would help to know something about psychoanalysis, or at least have
an interest in learning, before seeing this movie. It’s a good movie that I
think will appeal to only a small group of people, so I don’t recommend buying
a copy or seeing it unless you are in that group.
What’s
a dramatic movie about psychological problems that you thought was impressive?
Comment below and tell me why!
No comments:
Post a Comment