a dangerous method (2011). directed by david cronenberg.

i finally found sundance houston, the new cinema in town, yesterday when i went to hard rock cafe with a friend and asked the waitress there about it. it is the only cinema that plays this movie so i was anxious to catch it before it got discontinued. 

the movie felt like a stage more than celluloid. acting is good, though i can't say so for keira knightley who went a tad over the top that she stands out in the movie as not very natural compared to the rest of the cast. viggo mortensen is believeable as freud, so is micheal fassbinder as carl jung. i am not very familiar with the basis of freud's interpretation of dreams and his subsequent psychoanalytical methods, but judging from the movie, psychiatrists and psychologists alike are very neurotic people. freud and jung started off with a friendly father-son relationship, but they got competitive when their opinions clashed over the inclusion of non-scientific methods in psychoanalysis. things got more complicated when sabina spielrein (keira knightley), who essentially got dumped by jung as he caved into social pressure took her sad case to freud, and he began to have second thoughts about the ability of his protege. 

i don't think i come out of the movie enlightened about human nature, but it is nice to know that they are neurotic, manipulative people who play emotional games just like the rest of us.