A Dangerous Method (2011)  

Review written July 2022

Cronenberg goes Merchant Ivory?

Essentially this is a movie about Jung and the significant relationships in his life - with his forerunner and contemporary in psychoanalysis, Freud, with his rich and patient wife, and perhaps most of all with the patient with whom he falls in love and has an affair, Sabina Spielrein. It's hard to see the Cronenberg of old known for delving into murkiness and coming up with visually inventive and often shocking ideas.. here, the photography is bright and crisp, the mannerisms impeccable and the period seemingly immaculately recreated. The pace is measured, and in the manner of the time, "violent arguments" are mere words on paper, so much of what was said being done by letter. Indeed, it is through the letters of Freud and Jung so much is known about them, apparently. So it's a biography, covering the pivotal career trajectory of Jung. And yet for all the willingness to show things for how they were it feels less emotionally involving, and more.. well, clinical, if you'll forgive the analogy. The details are interesting and well observed, the history of the two men in particular is of some significance, and yet for all the fine performances it is hard to truly be engaged emotionally, despite Knightley’s brave and deliberate performance, which was apparently well researched. Fassbender has a wonderful time delivering a performance as Jung, finding out about himself as much as about his patients at times, and Mortensen is really wonderfully understated as he puffs his pipe, and wrestles with his opinion of the man he had hoped would carry his work forward. Their interplay during their period of friendship is arguably the movies highlight, as they ponder each others dreams.."Have you considered the rolling log could be your penis..?"

Knightley has done a great job in a difficult role, having to convince as someone seriously mentally ill at the start, but who went on to become a significant psychoanalyst in her own right. Alas, her Russian accent, while not awful, leaves you forever reminded she is acting, when everyone else speaks perfectly normally without their respective accents. It's defensible from a movie convention point of view, but distracts.

Taken on its own, without any preconceptions, this is a well crafted and visually beautifully conceived movie. It's just hard sometimes to forget that with Cronenberg we so often expect something with more bite. Without that bite, what we are left with is a biopic that educates a little, engages somewhat less, but is so beautifully shot and acted, it's like a Merchant Ivory film with added rude words.