Dude, Where's My Freud?

Ever since I caught up on the 1986 film the Fly, I went through a David Cronenberg ‘body horror’ phase. A technique seen in Cronenberg’s early films like Scanners (1981),VideoDrome (1983) and Dead Ringers (1988). It involves mutating flesh and plenty of graphic gore. Dead Ringers was the last ‘body horror’ film I have seen. Besides being classic Cronenberg, I cannot get his behind the scenes photos out of my head. In particular a picture of him holding a pair of surgical instruments that identical gynaecologist twins (Jeremy Irons) use to perform on ‘mutant women’.

Lately his films have changed, there was A history of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007), using less visceral violence and moving towards stronger character development. Gone are the days of Geoff Goldbum transformation into a fly, or James Woods ingesting a gun through the wall of his stomach.

His new film, A Dangerous Method (2012) uses Viggo Mortenson for the third time, this time playing Sigmund Freud. Alongside him are Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung and Keira Knightly as Sabina Spielrein. A Dangerous Method wastes no time in setting up the narrative, nor Knightly’s physical and vocal mannerisms. She arrives at a psychiatric hospital in Zurich with a bad case of hysteria and becomes a patient of Jung. The cinematography is enhanced through the warmer tones of the countryside giving her character a sense of freedom. Once Spielrein is forced inside, the camera tightens, its shots becoming more claustrophobic whilst the tones change to the clinical and drab. Jung proceeds to treat Spielrein through the talking cure, a psychoanalysis technique developed by Freud.

In classic Freudian psychoanalysis, Spielrein’s humiliation and sexual arousal began as a child from her father smacking her bare bottom. Gradually Spielrein improves, but Knightly’s character consistency is shown through her continued body spasms. Her improvement is seen through Jung’s eyes, seeing her in a different context, he breaks the patient physician ethics and it turns into an affair. The deliberate uncomfortable sex scenes not only looked like re-enactments of her childhood but became over indulgent and overdone. Sometimes it felt hard to take the film serious. Especially from the pervy camera work that stalked their every encounter.

Most of the audience were laughing or making agreeing sounds that suggested a deeper understanding of psychoanalysis. Interestingly this came from the guy in front of me, who was playing on his phone the whole time. During some of these tedious moments, I started to notice a change in Jung. What first started out as the highest professionalism now came across creepy. Fassbender showed this subtly, through a gradual deterioration Jung became more reminiscent of something typically Cronenberg.

Still, this was not enough. Cronenberg seemed to miss something. It is hard to believe that Freud was even in this film, it seems like he was used only as a spokesperson for his craft. Freud appeared from Jung’s minor visits and was used like a springboard to challenge each other’s methods. More from Freud would have helped add weight and tension to the film. In the few moments we see, Mortensen portrays Freud as arrogant, uppity and stubborn, always puffing on a cigar. This made me want to see more of him, not less.

Whenever A Dangerous Method showed tension, other than on a sexual level, it seems to pull back and gloss over it. This could be put down to the time period it was trying to cover, starting at the advent of World War I right through until World War II, all within the space of 100 minutes. 

A Dangerous Method would have worked better as a miniseries, where it could have explored its characters and given an effective balance to them. But as a film, the acting and cinematography alone did not help the overall structure. The narrative felt unclear and focused on too much of one thing and not enough of another. Like the guy on the phone, I too, wanted to play. The problem was I was hoping for more of that ‘Cronenberg’s’ body horror I once enjoyed.