A Dangerous Method (2012)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lblzHkoNn3Q

 

Dir: David Cronenberg

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen,  Keira Knightley

                David Cronenberg returns with a film adapted from a stage play about sex and psychoanalysis.

                Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) is a Doctor working in Psychoanalysis. He is delivered a patient Sabina Speilrein (Kiera Knightley), a disturbed woman who has deep seated problems with sex and arousal. Jung attempts to cure her with the ‘talking cure’, an early form of therapy. He also meets and strikes up a friendship with the father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). However, their relationship falls apart as Speilrein comes between them.

                Cronenberg moves still further away from the body horrors, such as Videodrome and The Fly, which he started with and which made his name. Though there are no scenes of skin splitting, the film still carries some of his usual themes, such as the fascination with the body, just not in such a visceral way as before. The film has an interesting story to tell, with it concerning the great names in psychoanalysis who started off the practice which is now such a part of many people’s lives.  You’d think that this would lend itself to a very interesting and enlightening film as I imagine it is a part of medical history which not a lot of people know about. Unfortunately the film doesn’t really do anything with its subject matter.

                The cast all put in good performances. Fassbender and Mortensen are great as per usual and Knightley does well once you get past her accent and the beginning where she oddly shoves her jaw out like an ejecting cash register. The always great Vincent Cassel also turns up as Otto Gross, a man who believes that people should do what they like and who plants the seed in Jung’s mind to embark on an affair with Speilrein. The ensuing affair, which causes a rift in the bromance between Jung and Freud, never really creates the drama that you wish it should. The relationship between Jung and Freud is the more interesting one, their relationship coming undone not only because of the affair but because of Freud’s feelings towards Jung’s wealth and religion. However, we don’t get to see enough of it and for a lot of the running time, the two characters are separated.

                A disappointing film which should have been so much better and interesting than it is. Good performances appear but not much else. Makes you yearn for some more fluid splattered body horror.

3 out of 5 Buttons

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2012)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_k3wCsOgqk

Dir: Sean Durkin

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes

                Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) goes to live with her sister and husband after she has fled a cult where she has been for the past two years. She struggles to adjust to the new life.

                Coming with festival buzz and awards, the film comes with high expectations particularly of Olsen who is stepping out of her sisters’ dwindling shadows to become an acting presence of her own. The film begins with Martha leaving a house in which she stays with a few other people and ending up at her sister’s house. We then find out what happened at the other house through flashbacks between her adjusting to the new life with her sister. There are some interesting points to see as Martha adjusts to a wealthier lifestyle which she is not used to, her sister’s life seeming empty to her. The flashbacks to the cult house are more interesting as we see slowly find out why Martha left. It is the cult which the most interesting part of the film and it is disappointing that we don’t get to see more of it. John Hawkes plays Patrick, the cult leader, well, showing how he manipulates his followers, playing on their own self esteem and fears. Elizabeth Olsen is as good as people are saying and it will be interesting to see what she does in the future.

                The problem with the film is that it doesn’t really do anything and doesn’t particularly build to anything despite the fairly interesting ending. You never really get a sense of foreboding or a sinister presence. Marlene reacts to a hired barman at a house party, saying she knows him, thinking him to be a member of the cult but we are never sure what she thinks is true; she is certainly a damaged girl. Though the film would never be a horror film, it never takes the premise of the possible lurking danger of the cult coming and finding her further. We get the idea that she is damaged but any paranoia that is brought up is undercut by her acting bored, hardly caring and certainly not someone who is afraid they could be taken back at any time. The same goes for the relationship between Martha and her sisters’ husband. Very slight hints are given that there is something strange going on but then nothing does, so any hints seems pointless. The running time went at a good pace and the film never outstayed its welcome but I was never particularly bothered about the characters so I was left cold at the end of the film.

                A film not without its interesting points but it isn’t as good as it could have been. Good acting but it is ultimately forgettable.

3 out of 5 Buttons