Title: A Dangerous Method

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel and Sarah Gadon

If you buy into the Auteur Theory of film criticism (that a filmmaker’s films reflect the filmmaker themselves), then you can see “A Dangerous Method” fits perfectly in David Cronenberg’s canon. It deals with the themes Cronenberg usually tackles in his films, in regard to psychology (“Videodrome” and “A History of Violence”), on the surface level, a story about the emergence of popular psychology and friendship between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbinder). In regard to sexual repression (“Crash”), the subject matter on another level and the birth of kink, and in regard to, a hidden identity (“The Fly” and “Dead Ringers”), what goes on behind closed doors and the grotesque. But what you wouldn’t find in Cronenberg’s work is a period piece, in this case being set in Vienna and Germany at the turn of the 20th Century. And in regard to this, Cronenberg shines but doesn’t last.

“A Dangerous Method” examines the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and Jung’s love affair with fellow psychologist, Sabina Spielrein. It’s not told in a conventional, love conquers all type of Hollywood movie, it’s a bit more methodical than that, but rather the point of reason and why sex drives all of human needs and desires, the basis of Freud’s psychology. The constant mental battle between Jung and Freud, never giving the other one the upper hand and the quick mind games that done in conversations and letters. This mirrored with Jung’s love affair and passion for Spielrein, who has a pension for bondage and sadomasochism, “A Dangerous Method” offers audiences storytelling and character moments that never really come together as cleanly as they should, even in terms of a Cronenberg film.

Wonderfully shot with landscapes of amazing gardens and cascading and flowing rivers and streams, “A Dangerous Method” doesn’t go any deeper than the psychology discussed within it. The friendship between Jung and Freud are interesting enough to get through the film, but it never evolves into rivalry, or if it does, it’s too subtle but to the film’s detriment. The love affair between Jung and Spielrein is not pronounced enough and is just hinged on sex, maybe that’s the point but it doesn’t seem as genuine, until the final shot of the film. But until that point, it frustrates the narrative.

Adapted from the stage play, “The Talking Cure” by Christopher Hampton, “A Dangerous Method” feels stale when it shouldn’t, it feels overlong when it shouldn’t and it feels less than Cronenberg-ian, when it shouldn’t. It’s not a bad film, but it’s a far less interesting film to pay it mind and a far too unconventional film to make it complete. A film that spans 8 years of the tumultuous love affair and friendship should be more exciting or at the approach the film takes, should be more introspective and methodical, which I guess does reflect the title of the film to its filmmaking and narrative, but to what end.

“A Dangerous Method” is screening as part of the New York Film Festival on Oct 5th.

Technical: A-

Acting: B+

Story: C

Overall: C+

by @Rudie_Obias