A Dangerous Method (Review)

It's not very often that a film comes with a list of prerequisites. Most films actively shun them, presenting information to the viewer in an easily digestible manner; while others, in fact, attempt to rob the viewer of knowledge they already possess.

Look! I fit an entire case into this single point!

A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg's latest reteaming with now-frequent collaborator Viggo Mortenson, requires the audience to have at least a couple psych classes under their belts. If you slept through Psych 101 your freshman year, you may want to look elsewhere.
Without a working understanding of the philosophies and teachings of both Karl Jung and Sigmeund Freud, about 75% of this movie would have flown a few stories above my head. I could probably stand to brush up on my Sabina Spielrein too, but noting her possession of two X chromosomes, I'll have a good time learning about her from any modern curriculum (yay sexism!).

The film dramatizes the relationships between these three famous psychologists around the turn of the 20th century, after Freud was an established champion of new thought, Jung was his dissatisfied protégée, and Spielrein was Jung's patient. Psychological theories fairly integral to the plot are discussed with the utmost brevity, the basics of them are merely hinted at, necessitating the aforementioned prerequisites.

If you're at all familiar with the revolutionary psychological ideas at play, the film is occasionally fascinating. Unfortunately, the intriguing depiction of psychological discovery is bogged down by the film's insistence on focusing on the deterioration of Freud, Jung, and Spielrein's relationships, a deterioration that plays out through some very dramatic letter reading. With the crux of the dramatic tension resting so pivotally on actor's abilities to look rather angry while holding a piece of paper, the film falls victim to fact. 

Freud and Jung exchanged angry letters. That was the end of their friendship. Not terribly exciting to watch. Spielrein and Jung's relationship is much more compelling, and not just because it involves considerably more bondage. The so-ho-right-now Michael Fassbender is excellent as a conflicted, inspired Jung, and the always-hot-right-now Keira Knightly manages to overcome her Bond-villain-bad fake Russian accent to deliver a powerful performance as the troubled Spielrein.

But no performance can save the film from its own indecision. It never decides whether it is an exploration of ideas or an exploration of characters, and its surprisingly stunted length leaves little room to fully indulge both. While its competently made (Cronenberg - duh), and toys with some interesting concepts, it's never as exciting as ideas this monumental should be. A Dangerous Method just never feels very dangerous.

6.5/10