Actors: Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel, Sarah Gadon , André Hennicke , Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey , Mignon Reme , Mareike Carriere , Franziska Arndt , Wladimir Matuchin , André Dietz , Anna Thalbach , Sarah Marecek
Director: David Cronenberg
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.
So right off the bat it’s Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender and Vincent Cassel. This review could quiet comfortably end here, enough reason to dedicate the hour and a half’s worth of time to a movie. I did find it strange that it was as short as it was given David Cronenberg’s tendency to waft on for three or more hours. I found this film really comfortable and informative (as Cronenberg’s work tends to be). I also think it’s time to fold up the “I hate Keira Knightley” banner – she was brilliant! Been looking forward to this for a while and not disappointed!