A Dangerous Method is very different to David Cronenberg's usual fare, with no body horror (except Keira Knightley's gurning) or gory violence. It's a funny old film to sum up; the story of Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud's (Viggo Mortensen) relationship is indeed intriguing, especially when a young patient called Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) comes under Jung's 'care'. Mentally, there's a huge amount going on in the film and it's complex, interesting and looks glorious...the letdown unfortunately is that it's very, very dull. Sad face.
Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen - a Cronenberg muse - could be on screen for 140 minutes staring at paint drying and still be captivating, and they certainly try hard in A Dangerous Method with their efforts as Jung and Freud. They rub well off each other as intelligent sparring partners, with a big dose of old-fashioned bromance. Knightley's Spielrein gets in the way - the Yoko of psychology - with her jutting out chin and penchant for all things dirrrrtttyyy. The infamous spanking scenes between her and the Fass are well done and not the titillating razzle some may anticipate. It's art! Okay, they're still hot.
With all this going for it, where does it fail? Well, it drags. As eye candy, the film is great, but it doesn't go anywhere and the pay off is not considerable. All three actors do well with what they have, but this is nowhere close to the great works of Cronenberg such as Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, and not even comparable to Shivers, Videodrome or Scanners.
3/5 'hysterical' giggles
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