A Dangerous Method (2011)

Rating: 5.4/10

"Sometimes you have to do something unforgivable... just to be able to go on living."

It isn't often that I want to slander a period piece. Since they kind of are my cinematic vice, I find it hard to bad-mouth or give a negative review to a period drama piece. This time round though, the case was somewhat different.

'A Dangerous Method' "tells about the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis."

All's well and good with the story-line, only we seem to see more of Carl Jung's character than sir Sigmund and the relationship between the two forefathers of psychoanalysis. We do however, see a lot of Carl Jung's ex-patient and mistress and how that relationship affected Jung into the depths of psychoanalysis.

I am a great fan of Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen but this period drama was lacking chemistry between the protagonists as well as a stamina to follow up with the characters' story-line. In my opinion I believe the scripted lacked this emotional ground that could be built between these two men, thus leaving me emotional detached from their drama and their emotional journey. Since both the actors above have well proved in the past to be one of the best-in-depth actors in currently in the business, I expected a lot more from their performance, but instead got very little and a lot of jumble trying to follow where they were coming from.

Keira Knightley....Oh the never-ending battle of this actress's pouting. Indeed I do hold a bit of prejudice against this actress, since I have been watching her progress since she was 16 years old, and have yet to be impressed by her. With this film, she really did try to do the best she could, I could tell she struggled with her role, but in the end she did not again manage to exceed her yet-so-far acting abilities. She can do a lot better I think. She still needs more work in her craft, because a pretty corset and a bit of provocative nudity won't do. Keep on acting Keira.

All in all, story was a bit dull and mundane for my taste. Found it a bit hard to follow the characters and what their ultimate goal was. Had a couple of good scenes with Fassbender and his on-screen wife, Sarah Gordon. The direction was mellow and uninteresting; followed a very steady pace but which at the end lost me as an audience as to what it was trying to tell me. A very peculiar phenomenon if you think that this film is by David Cronenberg, an acclaimed director in the business who failed in many ways to deliver with this film.

Worth the watch if there's nothing else in the cinema this award season, which I can assure you this is not possible as there's plenty of much worthier films out there currently showing.


A Dangerous Method (2011)