"The word "detachment" rarely rolls off the tongue of psychoanalysts. Yet, ultimately that is what they are asking their patients to do—detach. Talk, that is, until one can detach from pain and then talk some more until there is, well, freedom. Well said but detachment is hardly what happens in this true tale of three lives that is the subject of A Dangerous Method: Sigmund Freud ( Viggo Mortensen), Carl Gustave Jung (Michael Fassbender ) and his young mistress Sabina Spielrein (Kiera Knightly). The cast soared above the screenplay.

This saga of the birth of modern psychiatry was based on two sources: the screenplay by Christopher Hampton who adapted his stage play The Talking Cure. The play in turn was based on the non-fiction book: A Most Dangerous Method.

Sabina is the young Jewish woman carried into Jung's office because she can't walk in. He sees in her immediately a chance to practice the art of talking and to draft his clever and "very wealthy" wife Emma Jung (Sara Gadon) into the laboratory.



Jung and Spielrein battle for her ego months on end so that she can fulfill her dream of becoming a child psychiatrist. This storyline runs parallel to the evolution of the friendship between Jung and Freud. It is not lifelong because Jung finds Freud's "dangerous method" too sexual and breaks away.

Director David Cronenberg takes the honey bee by the stinger, the film borders on masterful.

I've been a Carl Jung fan for decades. So I was enthralled by the subject matter and waited for a seat at this sold-out screening. My interest was aided by Jung's Buddhist bent, and that he became one of the most celebrated, and longer lived, psychoanalysts in his field. In the film, Freud mocks Jung for this very belief in destiny, premonition and spirit.

we are the welcome voyeurs of two men and one towering (precocious) feminist who are driven by and jammed up with a passion for drugs, sex and the freedom that went with indulging the senses to the detriment of life. Despite the film editing one learns much about the personal foibles of four psychiatrists who chose not to conform to societal norms.

At its heart this film is about freedom, friendship, fidelity and jealousy. Freud and Jung become fast friends but Sabrina is left out. So she rights this oversight by writing Freud a letter to gain entry into his life. Her first one fails but with a more honest second try finds a method to the greatest mind in Europe. All does not end well in their personal fortunes. Jung foresees the destruction of humanity in Europe (Holocaust) and shares this dream with Sabina, who becomes one of its many victims.

The film has presence and brevity — the veil is lifted on early 19th century middle class Europe - and will absolutely suit the artsy crowd."