This past Monday, while enjoying a pleasant vacation day due to the New Year’s Holiday, my sweetie-wife and I left our home in the morning for our traditional weekend walks at the San Diego Zoo. (World Famous I’ll have you know.) Before getting to the zoo we swung by our local art house movie theater, The Ken, to pick up their guide to upcoming releases playing there.
Flipping through the pamphlet, my sweetie noticed a mention of A Dangerous Method that was from the month before and commented that she had hoped to see that but sadly it slipped past us unnoticed. I pulled out my iPhone, fired up the Flixter app and determined that the film was still paying locally and a show time was available to us before noon. In a move that was uncharacteristic of us, we aborted the plans for Zoo, took in an early lunch, and then headed to the movies.
A Dangerous Method is sort of a biopic, the topic of the film being Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his relationship with a troubled patient, Sabina Speilrein (Kiera Knightly), and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). Jung is a married man, expecting his first child when Sabina is admitted to the university hospital in Switzerland. Jung, and admirer of Freud’s work, determines that Sabina is a perfect candidate for Freud’s radical idea, the ‘Talking Cure.” Prompted by his wife, Jung overcomes his awe of Freud and writes the professor about Sabina intriguing case.
The film follows two parallel plots, one dealing with Jung and Sabina, their highly unethical relationship and her progression from patient through student and finally to colleague. The second plot line is the relationship between Jung and Freud, following them through Master and Student, through colleagues and into rivalry. The Jung/Freud story is by far the more interesting one. Jung and Sabina’s affair is a dull story, without any real elements that lift it from the usual powerful man takes a mistress predictability.
The fault cannot lie with the actors, as all three turned in truly wonderful performances. Viggo brought Freud to life, reducing him from historic icon to a flesh and blood person with virtuosity that makes it clear why Viggo considers himself an actor and not a star. Fassbender’s very good again, I have seen him in three films and in each his performance is exactly modulated to the tone and the character, be that the frenetic Inglorious Basterds, the expansive X-Men: First Class, or this quiet close movie. Kiera Knightly portrays both her characters insanity and ethnicity with skill and originality. She manages facial contortions during her episodes that were simply fascinating.
No, the fault with the film lies in the script. It’s uneven, giving us terrific scenes and story between Freud and Jung, but falling flat when dealing with Jung personal life and slipping into sensationalism to hold the audience’s interest.
This is not a film I can recommend going out to see, but it’s worth a look on Netflix whe it is released on home video.