A Dangerous Method (2011)

Drama, Thriller, Biography

Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: Christopher Hampton, John Kerr
Starring: Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel

"Based on the true story of Jung, Freud and the patient who came between them."

Michael Fassbender is Carl Jung and Viggo Mortensen is Sigmund Freud in a film directed by David Cronenberg.

Keira Knightley also stars as Sabina Spielrein, a Russian young woman who starts out as a patient of Carl Jung's, who treats her for hysteria at his hospital Zurich, and ends up being his student and lover, and later on, as one of the first women psychoanalysts, his colleague. The film focuses on her relationship with Jung but also with the older Sigmund Freud, who was involved in a strong relationship of professional collaboration with the former at the time.

The story is based on a well-documented non-fiction book by John Kerr – that, just like Tracks, was considered for Julia Roberts (as Spielrein) in the 1990s – which David Cronenberg (The Fly, Naked Lunch, Eastern Promises) transforms into one of his absorbing movies.

Plot summary from IMDb: Suffering from hysteria, Sabina Spielrein is hospitalized under the care of Dr. Carl Jung who has begun using Dr. Sigmund Freud's talking cure with some of his patients. Spielrain's psychological problems are deeply rooted in her childhood and violent father. She is highly intelligent however and hopes to be a doctor, eventually becoming a psychiatrist in her own right. The married Jung and Spielrein eventually become lovers. Jung and Freud develop an almost father-son relationship with Freud seeing the young Jung as his likely successor as the standard-bearer of his beliefs. A deep rift develops between them when Jung diverges from Freud's belief that while psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems it cannot cure the patient.

Awards: Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 20 wins & 19 nominations.
Runtime: 99 min
R