A Dangerous Method (2011)
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Critic Consensus: A provocative historical fiction about the early days of psychoanalysis, A Dangerous Method is buoyed by terrific performances by Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, and Viggo Mortensen.
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Cast
as Sabina Spielrein
as Sigmund Freud
as Carl Jung
as Otto Gross
as Emma Jung
as Professor Eugen Bleuler
as Sándor Ferenczi
as Jung's Secretary
as Food Nurse
as Bath Nurse
as Nikolai Spielrein
as Medical Policeman
as Bathtub Patient
as Orchard Nurse
as Orderly
as Orderly
as Ship's Officer
as Ship's Steward
as Karl Abraham
as Leonhard Seif
as Johan van Ophuijsen
as Ernest Jones
as Franz Riklin
as Martha Freud
as Minna Bernays
as Anna Freud
as Sophie Freud
as Ernst Freud
as Mathilde Freud
as Jean Freud
as Oliver Freud
as Maid at Freud's House
as Agathe Jung
as Gret Jung
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Critic Reviews for A Dangerous Method
All Critics (174) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (134) | Rotten (40) | DVD (3)
It makes for an absorbing drama and leaves the mustiness of cigars in the theatre.
Knightley gives a fair performance but lumbers herself with a distracting accent, and her gurning in the early scenes may be too much for some to bear.
The true story is extraordinary; the film is not, although the actors are all fine.
Like psychoanalysis, "A Dangerous Method" takes its time as it circles an opening to unexplored depths.
A Dangerous Method is a suave chamber piece: a series of glimpses of two 20th-century intellectual titans, in friendship and separation, and the story of a remarkable woman who history had swallowed up, brought into the light again.
Cronenberg has reached the stage of his career where he doesn't feel it necessary to pander to expectations. Instead he seeks to engage us, and he succeeds.
Audience Reviews for A Dangerous Method
It is a pity to see this compelling subject told in such a simplistic and bureaucratic way, and so the three characters and their motivations are not really well developed, even if the actors do their best. Besides, the constant skips in time contribute to make the story less fluid.
Super Reviewer
I decided to check this out when the professor mentioned this movie in a lecture for my class on European mysticism and psychoanalysis. Keira Knightley's most impressive performance yet. The relationship between the three is depicted with delicious tension, intellectual sparring and a fated tragicness. I appreciated that the filmmakers leaned towards more academic accuracy than cheap melodrama. The only unconvincing part of the story was that Jung's penchant for mysticism didn't seem to colour his interactions or behaviour in the first half of the film, but then abruptly emerged in his conversations with Freud. Despite this minor quibble, I enjoyed this and it helped establish an atmosphere for my class readings.
Super Reviewer
I'm with those who felt indifferent to this. Nothing awful to hate, but nothing to think wow, great movie. One off view was more than enough for me. Keira's acting is maybe slightly overdone at the beginning. I do like her, but not so much in this role. Overall movie is a little dry and dull for my taste the.
Super Reviewer
A Dangerous Method Quotes
| Carl Jung: | My love for you was the most important thing in my life. For better or worse, it made me understand who I am. |
| Carl Jung: | [looking at her pregnant belly] He should be mine. |
| Carl Jung: | He should be mine. |
| Sabina Spielrein: | Yes. |
| Carl Jung: | Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living. [we see Sabina crying as she leaves in a coach, then we see Jung sitting emotionally withdrawn in his backyard] |
| Carl Jung: | Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living. |
| Sigmund Freud: | [voice over] Your letter cannot be answered. Your claim that I treat my friends like patients is self evidently untrue. As to which of us is the neurotic, I thought on this we agreed that a little neurosis was nothing whatever to be ashamed of. But a man like you, who behaves quite abnormally and then stands there shouting at the top of his voice how normal he is, does give considerable cause for concern. For a long time now, our relationship has been hanging by a thread, and a thread moreover, mostly consisting of past disappointments. We have nothing to lose by cutting it. |
| Sigmund Freud: | Your letter cannot be answered. Your claim that I treat my friends like patients is self evidently untrue. As to which of us is the neurotic, I thought on this we agreed that a little neurosis was nothing whatever to be ashamed of. But a man like you, who behaves quite abnormally and then stands there shouting at the top of his voice how normal he is, does give considerable cause for concern. For a long time now, our relationship has been hanging by a thread, and a thread moreover, mostly consisting of past disappointments. We have nothing to lose by cutting it. |
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