SYNOPSIS
Not long after beginning his professional career, psychiatrist Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) begins treating Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), who has been diagnosed with the catchall condition “female hysteria.” Using techniques steeped in the psychoanalytic method developed by Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Jung cures her. She becomes his research assistant, and also his lover. When Freud learns of the affair, a wedge is driven between the two men.
CRITIQUE
A Dangerous Method is well acted, and David Cronenberg directs with his typically exacting control, but the movie lacks one thing: a purpose. There’s no real story here, and what little there is suffers from a distinct lack of dramatic fire and drive. Despite its pedigree, the movie plays a little like an extended skit members of the American Psychological Association might have thrown together to entertain themselves at their last meeting.
Writer Christopher Hampton deserves most of the blame. His script was adapted from his play The Talking Cure, which was itself inspired by John Kerr’s nonfiction book A Most Dangerous Method. Hampton wasn’t able to fashion a compelling narrative out of Kerr’s book. This is a stodgy chamber piece, scene after scene of people talking, talking, and talking. (There’s never any question this originated on the stage. For what little Cronenberg is able to do to open it up visually, a photographed stage presentation likely wouldn’t have been all that different.) And most of that talk is dry and academic; much of the dialogue sounds as if the characters are reading from a textbook.
You may very well disagree, but for me there’s nothing interesting or entertaining about straight-faced discussions of penis envy and anal expulsiveness. (It probably doesn’t help that I’ve always found the vast majority of Freud’s ideas to be poppycock [lame pun fully intended]. But even if I didn’t, I imagine all of the stilted dialogue here would still hurt my ears.)
Much of this is typical of Hampton’s lesser works, which outweigh his successes. For ever Dangerous Liaisons or Atonement you get a Mary Reilly, a Beyond the Limit, a The Secret Agent, and a Cheri. Hampton sets a few characters against one another, and he gives them a lot to say (much of it ostensibly of some portent), but more often that not nothing much ever comes of it.
There’s a conflict here between Jung and Freud, one between Jung and Spielrein, and yet another between Jung and himself, but none of it’s the least bit compelling. It all more or less comes down to a fight over whether or not a research paper will be published and whose name will be on it if/when it does get published. What sort of drama is that? And I get that all of the talk the characters bandy about while discussing the psychological trauma of others is really about themselves, but so what? The fact that it’s obvious in an ironic way doesn’t make it any less obvious.
Although at first glance this might not seem like the sort of story Cronenberg would be compelled to tell, his typical themes do come into play here. It’s easy to spot the psychosexual tension, but the transformations are there, too; their form is just less overt and in something of a different guise. (Think of the way Scorsese turned his typical physical violence into emotional and verbal violence in The Age of Innocence and you’ll have something of an idea of what Cronenberg does with his own obsessions here.) His cold, clinical approach to the material works, but I wish he’d been a little less deliberate when it came to the pacing (which is very, very, very deliberate). His visuals are static, unadorned, almost flat, often little more than two people isolated against a wall.
Of course, he’s never been much for grandiose visuals, and what he has to work with here forces him to strip down his already stripped-down style even further. Somewhat ironically, the few scenes that attempt to move the story beyond its stage-bound stylistics are the least visually interesting; there’s nothing wrong with Cronenberg’s staging or composition, but the visual effects used to pull them off are terrible, drawing attention to their terribleness in a way that makes focusing on anything else impossible.
The three leads are excellent. You could say Fassbender has the easiest role, as no one has any preconceived dramatic notions about Yung. That would be something of a disservice to Fassbender, though; to whatever degree you think it works, the movie rests on his shoulders, and he more than carries it. Mortensen (who took over for Christoph Waltz) deserves credit not only for the strength of his performance but also for making his Freud something other than the unintentionally amusing caricature dramatic portrayals generally are (i.e., an ubiquitous cigar and a funny accent).
Knightley is equally good, but some may have trouble with the, for lack of a better word, theatricality of her performance. It’s big at times, bordering on what Stanley Kubrick once described as “Lon Chaney-big.” But that theatricality is necessary, especially when you consider the way the character changes over the course of the movie. (Knightley also deserves credit for coming through the spanking scene with her dignity intact. If you’ve ever wondered why more movies don’t feature spanking scenes, the one here will provide you the answer.)
THE VIDEO
The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is a good one, but intermittent problems with the contrast drag it down some. The image is unnaturally bright at times, which blows out white and leads to some blooming and haloing. It can also be a little overly soft at times. At its best, though, the image has a natural look, albeit one that’s just a bit cold (which I’m sure is intentional). Colors, which are generally subdued, can look very good. (I’ve taken a brief look at the Blu-ray release, which is much, much better, exhibiting almost none of the problems of its standard-def counterpart.)
THE AUDIO
The sound mix is dialogue-heavy, which means this disc’s Dolby Digital 5.1 track is front-heavy. There’s some mild atmosphere in the rears, as well as some music bleed, but that’s it. Dialogue sounds fine, and Howard Shore’s excellent music (a mixture of original score and period compositions) is given a good presentation, which is pretty much all you could ask for here. No other audio options are included; English, English SDH, and French subtitles are available.
THE EXTRAS
The commentary by David Cronenberg is another excellent track from the director. He gives an in-depth discussion of most aspects of the production, and he also provides some historical context for some of the events depicted in the movie.
The Making of A Dangerous Method (8 minutes) is your standard behind-the-scenes/promotional piece.
AFI’s Harold Lloyd Master Seminar (31 minutes) is an interview with Cronenberg conducted at the American Film Institute.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Is it worth seeing? Eh, I’m not so sure. I do know that only the Cronenberg faithful will want to buy it. Everyone else is advised to rent it, and even then only after careful thought.
