Review

Review Date: 26-December-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

A Dangerous Method (2011)

A Dangerous Method delighted me by being more cerebral and less titillating than the advertising and reputation of director David Cronenberg would suggest. The movie draws from the lives of two famous men, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and one not-so-famous woman, Sabina Spielrein, who all contributed to the birth of psychoanalysis. Beyond its appeal to students of psychology, it offers rich food for thought involving history, relationships, the methods of inquiring minds, and the messiness of being human. Featuring a crisp narrative style and excellent performances, it is simply a fascinating film.

The ubiquitous Michael Fassbender stars as Jung, a part which allows him to diversify his brooding résumé. Jung is an up-and-coming Swiss psychiatrist in 1904, kind and cheerful but fastidious in a way which his Viennese hero Freud might call repressed. At times he seems almost childlike, able to witness and discuss normally embarrassing things not because he's a doctor but because he's somehow innocent. Thus he doesn't bat an eye when his new patient, the daughter of a wealthy Russian merchant, admits to feeling aroused by pain and humiliation. Nor does Keira Knightley appear fazed by playing this patient, Spielrein. I'm surprised she's not receiving more awards attention since voters often seem to love Brits, beautiful young actresses, and roles involving mental illness. In any case, she does a fine job showing how Spielrein was induced to get better by Jung's faith that she would — not just get better, but go to university and become a psychoanalyst herself.

After goading from a hedonistic colleague/patient (Vincent Cassel) and Spielrein herself, Jung gives into his appetite and becomes her lover. This roughly coincides with the entrenchment of his family life (a new house for his wife and their growing brood), and with his complicated relations with Freud. Viggo Mortensen portrays the storied shrink as a crusty bastard fixated on the perceived hatred directed his way by professional rivals and anti-Semites. The movie doesn't delve too deep into their famous, and famously broken, friendship, but it documents how Freud's rigid viewpoint could not tolerate Jung's mystical theories, which he calls the "black mud of superstition." As the men quarrel and split, mostly by letter, Spielrein wends her way between them, linked to Freud through her study (and personal experience with) sexual neurosis and to Jung through love and appreciation. She cannot reconcile them or heal Jung when he is stricken by weakness and the devastation of Europe which his unconscious knows is coming. It's invigorating to watch such intelligent people tackle issues like societal imperative versus personal impulse, and sad to see that they, like everyone else, have a hard time reaching firm middle ground.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.