A Dangerous Method

A DANGEROUS METHOD (CINEMA)
Lionsgate UK

Release date: February 10th, 2012
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 99 minutes

Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Christopher Hampton
Composer: Howard Shore

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley, Vincent Cassel

Where would we be today without the work of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology? Prior to their break-throughs, many of those suffering from mental disorders were simply shut away and their ailments were attributed to work of either God or the Devil.

We’ve come a long way since then. There are a number of treatments available and the mental health industry is booming as a result, for better or for worse. Yet for all the progress Freud and Jung made by simply getting people to talk about their problems, why couldn’t they agree on each other’s methods?

A Dangerous Method is based on Christopher Hampton’s 2002 stage play The Talking Cure, and the book by John Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein. Directed by David Cronenberg, it tells the story of the relationship between Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and follows how these two brilliant minds first came together and then grew apart.

At the turn of the 20th century we meet Spielrein who’s brought to Jung as a patient. Clearly distressed and suffering deeply from some kind of trauma in her past, Jung tries a new approach with her and eventually she begins to open up. Around the same time, Jung forms a friendship with Freud by postal correspondence, after first sending him his Studies in Word Association. When the two meet, they spend 13 hours discussing all manner of things, namely Jung’s repressed sexual desires for Spielrein which he cannot act on; she is a patient and he is married.

As Spielrein’s progress continues, she begins studying at university and hopes to become a psychoanalyst herself. Her recovery draws her closer to Jung, while he in turn becomes more and more disillusioned with Freud’s insistence that all neurosis is exclusively of sexual origin. When Freud refuses to share his dream with Jung for fear it might undermine his authority, the latter knows that an irreparable rift has formed between them. Still, with his and Spielrein’s growing affections for each other, that should bring them some comfort, but even Jung cannot fully let his desires run free, making him no different than the patients he treats. What really drives him is not just diagnosing what’s wrong with people, but finding a way to help them become who they really want to be.

Drawing on what we already know of these historical figures, A Dangerous Method offers drama with an intelligent script, as well as expert direction and a fine cast. Knightley’s role is a challenging one as the conflicted and ambitious Spielrein. She not only behaves convincingly as a sadomasochist, but also as someone who has endured years of abuse. Fassbender and Mortensen in contrast give very restrained performances, and given the characters they play, it is somewhat fitting.

Scenes are framed and shot beautifully throughout and there’s an almost clinical precision to the mise-en-scène. For all these perfections it comes a shame that I didn’t feel the conflict rising between Jung and Freud as there was more time spent developing the on-screen affair with Spielrein. As a result, the presence of Freud and the ideas which drove him take to the back burner and are never really brought to boiling point for a dramatic conclusion.

As A Dangerous Method’s end credits are about come up we read what would become of these three great minds in the years followed and I couldn’t help but feel that’s what should have been shown, instead of thrown in as an after-thought. After seeing John Houston’s Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), starring Montgomery Clift in the title role, I imagined this to have gone further in exploring some of thoughts, motivations, dreams and aspirations of remarkable figure, but the former remains a superior film on the subject of Freud.

In short, A Dangerous Method makes for an interesting character study but doesn’t go nearly as deep enough as it could have, but perhaps it’s enough if you’re more interested in the actors than who they’re playing.