DVD review: A Dangerous Method
A Dangerous Method has just been released on DVD. Here Leo Owen lets us know what to expect.
Posted by Elderjuice
on June 30, 2012. Filed under Culture.
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A Dangerous Method has just been released on DVD. Here Leo Owen lets us know what to expect.
Having previously worked with Viggo Mortensen on Eastern Promises and the equally gritty History of Violence, David Cronenberg casts him as Sigmund Freud in his highly sexualised period drama, A Dangerous Method.
Flitting between Zurich in Switzerland and Austria’s Vienna, A Dangerous Method is based upon the original play The Talking Cure by screenwriter Christopher Hampton.
Experimental
Beginning in 1904, we meet Dr Carl Jung who is keen to trial a radical new experimental treatment, proposed by Freud and called ‘the talking cure’ or psychoanalysis.
Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) is a well-educated Russian Jew who speaks fluent German but suffers from unexplained and crippling fits, making her Jung’s perfect test patient.
In keeping with the treatment’s wordy name, the first meeting between Freud and Jung is comprised of a mammoth 13 hour conversation. Much of the film is in fact a clever game of words as the two great doctors analyse each other’s dreams, argue over sexual urges and the ego, and exchange accusatory letters arguing their theories.
Disagreement
Little actually happens as we move through time between the two countries until a disagreement over Sabina’s honour and Jung’s ‘brutality’ causes them to sever communications.
Jung is preoccupied by the importance of coincidence and, unlike Freud, refuses to believe sexuality is central to human behaviour: “There must be more than one hinge to the universe,” he muses.
Shocking
Knightley makes a brave and shocking first appearance as Spielrein, swearing and laughing intermittently while being carried into the hospital. She’s almost unrecognisable as she writhes around, stuttering and groaning, managing to stick her chin out at seemingly impossible angles.
With the ability to pre-empt people’s words and speak to angels, Spielrein is a troubled but brilliant soul. When ‘cured’ she later qualifies as a doctor.
Fassbender portrays Jung as a debonaire young doctor who almost guiltlessly embarks upon an affair with Spielrein when his ever-loyal wife is pregnant with their second child.
Mortensen is given little screen time as Freud and Vincent Cassel makes a brief appearance as Otto Gross, Jung’s tempter and patient.
Accents
Fassbender and Mortensen inexplicably sound very British while Knightley seems to have a hybrid German-Russian accent.
Although the focus of A Dangerous Method is supposed to be the relationship between Freud and Jung, it feels more like a doomed love story. The ending is bleak and abrupt with subtitles explaining the demise of the ill-fated central characters.
Strong performances and Hampton’s fascinating dialogue make for captivating viewing but don’t expect any light relief. The deep-seated torture suffered by all the cast is perhaps best summarised in Jung’s reflection: “Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living.”
Thankfully watching A Dangerous Method isn’t an unforgivable act but more of an enlightening one.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary By Director David Cronenberg
- The Making Of A Dangerous Method
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One Response to DVD review: A Dangerous Method
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Kinglear
June 30, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Some people say Cronenberg can do no wrong. I would have to disagree, and feel he has fallen prey to his own PR with this film which didn’t do well at the box office