A Dangerous Method
David Cronenberg’s movies are an acquired taste, and in fact, a taste I’m still trying to acquire. There are only a handful of his films I genuinely love (“Spider,” “The Fly,” “Eastern Promises”), while there are a few others I’m very much divided about, such as “Crash” and “A History of Violence.” His newest film, the psychological drama, “A Dangerous Method,” has the best and worst of Cronenberg on display: on the one hand, there’s some superb acting and fascinating ideas, but on the other hand, there are moments that are boring in how clinical the dialogue can get, as well as moments of over-the-top performance that lacks nuance and borders close to camp.
The story, adapted from the stage play by screenwriter Christopher Hampton, is right up Cronenberg’s ally, as we watch the beginnings of modern psychoanalysis in the early 20th century in Switzerland, as a hysterical patient named Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is taken to a clinic, where she becomes a patient of the therapist Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). In a break from the traditional practices of the time, Jung uses the “talking cure” to try and get to the heart of Spielrein’s psychosis, revolving around the sexual arousal she felt when her father punished her. The “talking cure” is a bold, new type of treatment championed by his colleague, Prof. Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), the Austrian who is the biggest name in psychoanalysis at the time. In discussing Spielrein’s case, Jung and Freud become good friends, although their ideas on human psychology form a rift that opens wider when Jung begins to get emotionally, and physically, involved with Sabina, who herself would become a well-known figure in the field.
There’s fascinating psychology in this drama about three divergent personalities, each of whom have strong ideas on their shared field, and when Cronenberg sticks to the neurosis that shapes all three, “A Dangerous Method” is a balls-out riveting tale. Unfortunately, there are narrative complications that, however accurate to real life, nonetheless turn the film into a sometimes silly melodrama not helped by Knightley’s early shreiking (when Spielrein calms down, the actress is on more solid ground) or Mortensen’s smug self-importance (although his interactions with Fassbender’s Jung make for gripping cinema). That said, Cronenberg and his actors dig into Hampton’s script like dogs chewing the fat off a bone– it doesn’t always make you feel good afterwards, but it sure is fun while you’re doing it.
