A Dangerous Method: Film Review

Yesterday, I went to the Ljubljana Film festival and saw A Dangerous Method, a historical film about Freud and Jung. The film is entertaining and educational and the acting is very impressive. Keira Knightley did a marvelous job portraying a young hysterical patient who during the process of therapy falls for the young charismatic Jung, played by the wonderful Michael Fassbender.

What impressed be more about Knightley’s acting is that she also managed to keep a continuous accent of a Russian Jew throughout the film. As a major cinephile, I’ve noticed that actors sometimes ‘’lose’’ the accent during the film (e.g. Anne Hathaway butchering the British accent in ‘’One Day’’; an American trying to unsuccessfully imitate the British accent is truly the saddest thing in the world) thus making a complete mockery of the role and the character. Luckily, this is not one of those films.

Viggo Mortensen. Need I say more? Very convincing acting, a nice continuous British accent throughout the film and a lovely on-screen charisma. And great make-up. He really, really looked like Freud with that white beard. Nice! I also love the fact that Fassbender and Mortensen starred in the same film. They are my two favorite actors.

David Cronenberg did a marvelous job; the scenery in the film, Switzerland and Austria, is fantastic, I even recognized one of the cafes in Vienna, where I had a Sachertorte;) Cronenberg also managed to answer almost a hundred year old question: what caused the dispute between Freud and Jung? And the answer is: Keira Knightley. The world makes sense again. Bless you Cronenberg for putting so many analytical psychologists at ease. Phew!

-Teja