A Dangerous Method15

Cronenberg has past form when it comes to films dealing in the darker human impulses, and at least one critic has seen this latest effort as a Merchant Ivory-ish version of his earlier masterpiece Rabid (minus the oozing viscera and wriggling, blood-hungry parasites). Adapted from Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure, it charts the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his protégé-turned-dissenter Carl Jung, as it was shaped by the case of Sabina Spielrein, a young woman patient he was treating with Freud’s controversial new ‘talking cure’. Featuring an electrifying trio of lead actors, who turn these forbidding historical figures into real flesh and blood, this is a fascinating film that brings ideas – and history – to life.