‘A Dangerous Method’ is a movie that lets you see the intensity of the relationship between Freud and Carl Jung which gave way to the emergence of psychoanalysis.
This features a clash of varying methodologies and the fight between what is intellectual in a cool surface and the other in a messed state. It is also filled with a lot to learn more about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud.
The film started as a book and eventually became a play made by Christopher Hampton who is also the name behind another dangerous work which was called ‘Dangerous Liaisons.’ The styles of the writer and horror movie director David Cronenberg mixed well in this very smart yet timid drama. The approach implemented by Hampton is the one that dominates topped off with the traditional scoring techniques of Howard Shore.
It revolves around the character of Sabina Spielrein played by Keira Knightley. She is a Russian Jewish teenager who is set at a Swiss asylum way back in 1904 due to a case of hysteria. You would see Knightley perform a chaotic array of gestures from outbursts, tics and even contortions. Jung was played out by Michael Fassbender who decides on the implementation of what is known to be the ‘talking cure’ that was actually developed by Freud, played by Viggo Mortensen.
Everybody knows how Freud shocked the world with his suggestion that most psychological issues are actually sexual. This insight is the key that serves as the answer to the problem of Spielrein. It was then revealed that she was a masochist who has erotic proclivities triggered by the physical abuse done by her own father when she was just four years old.
Things turned out differently though with how Jung applies this to her. He decides to become a part of her own obsession that he even whips her before they even get into sex. This then violates the approach that doctors should maintain a considerable amount of distance from their patients.
Actors Mortensen and Fassbender were able to play their characters really well to successfully give highlight to the antics of Knightley. This movie is not something new to expect from Cronenberg. It actually has the usual treatment of issues that are popular in his own movies. But this time, it does not play up in favor of the movie’s strengths. One thing can be certain though after seeing this movie: you would consider it very troubling and full of dissonance.