A
film review by James, Berardinelli, on January 7, 2012.
Reduced
to its essence, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method is little more than
an historical romantic tragedy. Since the film's three principals were pioneers
in the field of psychotherapy, it goes without saying there's a lot of dialogue
about the ego, the mind, the connection between sex and death, and so forth -
potentially enough to overload someone not in the profession. (I found myself
straining to remember the relevant chapters from my Psych 101 text book.)
Ultimately, however, A Dangerous Method
is less about the formative years of psychotherapy and two of its progenitors
than it is about a rule-breaking extramarital affair.
The
movie covers the span of roughly a decade, beginning around 1904 and concluding
just before the outbreak of World War I. The primary focus is the relationship
that develops between Carl Jung (Michael
Fassbender) and his patient, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly). When Jung first encounters Sabina, she is a wreck
- in the grip of a severe anxiety disorder and barely functional. As Jung
employs an experimental talking cure
on her, it is revealed that any form of physical punishment or humiliation
triggers excessive sexual desire. Her sessions with Jung enable her to cope
with her needs and overcome the guilt that accompanies them. After leaving his
care, she elects to become a psychiatrist and, while in his capacity as her
dissertation adviser, he initiates a sexual relationship with her. In the
meantime, Jung has begun a friendship with Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and quickly rises to the position of Freud's #1 disciple. Jung's career and
professional standing are threatened, however, by the proverbial woman scorned. After breaking off his
affair with Sabina, he learns she is unwilling to calmly just be friends.
The
romantic aspect of A Dangerous Method
is the most emotionally resonant element of the movie, but it's also the most
hackneyed. The production's claim to originality - the telling of the
friendship between Jung and Freud - becomes a secondary concern. There are
enough scenes between the two to provide a general view of how they influenced
one another and what eventually caused the falling out, but those sequences are
perfunctory and, like the character of Freud, lacking depth and insight. A Dangerous Method wants to tell the
stories of Jung and Sabina and Jung and Freud (and how they criss-crossed).
While it can be said to accomplish both, it only does the former well.
The
original source material is John Kerr's
carefully researched A Most Dangerous
Method, which was developed by Christopher
Hampton into the stage production, The
Talking Cure. Hampton, no stranger to the art of screenplay writing,
adapted his own play, as he did with Dangerous
Liaisons. For Cronenberg, who is known for odd and sometimes
envelope-pushing motion pictures, A
Dangerous Method is about as straightforward and conventional as it gets.
Although there are brief forays into S&M, those are background elements.
Perhaps Cronenberg was fascinated by the way in which the movie discusses and
explores the concept of sexual repression and its link to psychological
dysfunction. Whatever the case, Cronenberg does nothing to sign this movie; one must see his name on the credits to recognize
this as being his work.
Viggo
Mortensen and Michael Fassbender have previously displayed the Full Monty on
screen (Mortensen in a prior collaboration with Cronenberg, Eastern Promises), but they retain their
modesty in A Dangerous Method. Their
performances are solid but unexceptional. Fassbender has a stronger presence in
two of his other 2011 efforts, X-Men:
First Class and (especially) Shame.
Mortensen isn't given much of an opportunity to develop Freud as more than a
pompous jerk with a stick up his ass. Keira Knightley, however, shows plenty of
flesh as she immerses herself in the performance. The actresses' best work
comes early, during Sabina's unhinged scenes; Knightley's portrayal is feral
and unsettling. It's not the nudity that makes this courageous acting; it's the
lengths to which she goes to simulate Sabina's anxiety attacks. As good as she
is, however, the actress has difficulty with Sabina's accent (Russian-accented
German, but presented in English - no wonder it's confused).
A Dangerous Method provides viewers
with an affecting melodrama that is more honestly based on a true story than many similar tales while simultaneously
dispensing intriguing ideas about sex, science, and death. By accentuating the
raw and emotional aspects of the narrative, Cronenberg avoids the obvious trap
of pretentiousness, but he cannot hide the fact that he's just skimming the
surface of more compelling material. Those who go to the movie expecting to see
a detailed chronology of the beginnings of psychotherapy will be disappointed,
but those in search of a Tolstoy-flavored romantic tragedy will find it here,
albeit with a degree of sexual candor that would have given the great author a
heart attack. [Berardinelli: 3 stars out of 4]
Labels:
biography, drama, period, thriller
No comments:
Post a Comment