Amazon? Still working through David Copperfield. Because I only read when I travel (and sometimes at work) progress is slow sometimes. Oh, and the new Empire arrived!! Very much looking forward to sink my teeth into that bad boy.
*****
I’m really easily enticed by a movie, I won’t lie. I see that there’s this such-and-such big actor starring alongside this such-and-such big actor, and I’m hooked. I start to get this sort of craving for it. It has to be seen, I need to see it. Because not watching it could be the worst mistake of my life. So I change my life to accommodate cinema times. That’s what I did today. Work started at 5, so off I went to my local World o’ Cine to watch A Dangerous Method, a movie that enticed me. Got well fucked over for that.
On paper, it’s pretty impressive, based on the real-life relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sebastian Freud (Viggo Mortensen), two of the most important and respected psychiatrists in history. The film basically shows how psychoanalysis was created in the early twentieth century, as well as showing how the two guys – who respected each other massively – fell out. A big part of that was down to Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a patient and then mistress of Jung.
Like I say, very impressive on paper. On-screen? Bloody hell, I was bored. Some of you might know what Freud’s and Jung’s theories are, some might not, but this movie is basically a psychology lesson. And I hated that it was. Don’t get me wrong, I find the subject matter fascinating, but I didn’t want to be preached at. 75% of the movie is just people having very intelligent conversations. It’s great the first couple of times; then it just gets boring. Then, on top of that, there are these really cringe-inducing moments where one of them ‘predicts’ the future (“In 100 years, they’ll still disagree with us,” Freud says at one point), in some sort of wink to the audience. Annoying.
And the whole thing really pissed me off, because I wanted to love the film. Michael Fassbender! Viggo Mortensen! Keira Knightley! All three actors I really like (yes, even Keira), so I expected more. I will say this, though – they acted well. Very well, actually. There wasn’t a bad performance, really. The problem was that it was just boring in general.
Of the three, I’ll say that Knightley is the best, by a whisker. Perhaps I’m swayed by the fact that she has a Russian accent and has the most intense character (she does some freaky shit with her jaw), but I loved her the most. Vincent Cassel is in the film a bit too; not long. He’s good in it, but I had absolutely no idea what he was doing there. He moves the story along a bit, but I was confused by him.
Look, I didn’t like this film. But I think opinion on the movie will be divided. If you like your movies with a lot of talking and philosophising, you’ll have a blast. If you don’t mind the frustrating exposition, you’ll have a blast. I didn’t have a blast. Yes, I think I did learn a lot more about Freud and Jung, and would love to learn more. But I wanted to see a gripping movie, and I got Mastermind instead.
*****
Time to watch Gainsbourg now. Do me a favour and follow me on Twitter - @writeofcentre – and do me a bigger favour by following this blog. The bigger the favour, the bigger the place you’ll have in my heart. Fact. As I sign off, ‘Won’t Want For Love (Margaret In The Taiga)’ by The Decemberists starts to play. I fucking love this band.
Okay, bye! Love you!
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