Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Carl Jung takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein as his patient. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.
Ratings
Curator score: 3.7/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.15/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
Metacritic: 76
TMDB: 6.4/10
Director
David Cronenberg
Production
Dangerous Method Film AG, Recorded Pictures Company, Millbrook Pictures, Prospero Pictures, Lago Film, The Movie Network
Cast
Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Gadon, Vincent Cassel, André Hennicke, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Mignon Remé, Mareike Carrière, Franziska Arndt, Wladimir Matuchin, André Dietz, Anna Thalbach, Sarah Marecek, Björn Geske, Markus Haase, Christian Serritiello, Clemens Giebel, Theo Meller, Jost Grix
Curator Review
Verdict
A chilly, intelligent psychodrama that turns early psychoanalysis into a tense triangle of desire, ego, and intellectual control. It’s less a conventional biopic than a restrained chamber piece, with strong performances and a precise, clinical style that suits the material.
Best for
viewers who like historical dramas about ideas and obsession
fans of psychological power games and restrained erotic tension
people interested in Freud/Jung-era intellectual history
audiences who enjoy elegant, talk-heavy period films
Skip if
you want a fast-moving plot
you prefer emotionally warm or openly romantic dramas
you dislike theatrical, dialogue-driven chamber pieces
you expect a conventional biography with clear heroism
Overview
David Cronenberg approaches psychoanalysis as a battlefield of manners, desire, and self-mythology. The film is cool to the touch, but beneath that surface it’s full of pressure: professional authority slipping into intimacy, theory becoming leverage, and every conversation carrying a second, more dangerous meaning.
Worth noting
Keira Knightley gives the movie its most volatile energy, while Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender play intellectual rivalry with controlled menace. The result is less about explaining Freud and Jung than about watching brilliant people use language to conceal what they want from each other.
Bottom line
Its austerity may keep some viewers at arm’s length, but that distance is part of the design. If you like period dramas that feel like duels, and stories where ideas are inseparable from appetite and control, this is a rewarding watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Etan Weisfogel · 2416 likes
Men will literally invent therapy instead of going to therapy
Anika (3.5★) · 1187 likes
Minus half a star because there were no Jung/Freud make out scenes.
Neil Bahadur (5★) · 747 likes
Kind of unbelievable - a chamber drama where what begins as psychoanalysis turns into psychological power games, with split-diopter shots to replace shot-reverse shots, so one character always has power over another in the frame. Geniuses fighting petty ego battles which change the world, discourse and control as neverending circle - the key is Wagner's Siegfried, mentioned in the film and which also serves as the structural blueprint for this films structure: it's another film of the artist as monster.… more Kind of unbelievable - a chamber drama where what begins as psychoanalysis turns into psychological power games, with split-diopter shots to replace shot-reverse shots, so one character always has power over another in the frame. Geniuses fighting petty ego battles which change the world, discourse and control as neverending circle - the key is Wagner's Siegfried, mentioned in the film and which also serves as the structural blueprint for this films structure: it's another film of the artist as monster.… more
mina · 634 likes
The amount of energy Keira spent quivering her jaw in this movie made my own face feel sore
deah (2.5★) · 580 likes
david cronenberg is such an asshole for letting fass/viggo use generic englishy voices but making keira do that Russian accent