A Dangerous Method

Get Showtimes + Tickets

  • Opened November 23, 2011 (Limited 11/23)
  • 1 hr 39 min
  • R | Sexual content and brief language

  • Parents: Common Sense Media says not for kids. More on child suitability

  • In 1904 a Russian woman named Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) arrives at Carl Jung's (Michael Fassbender) clinic, seeking treatment for hysteria. Jung is eager to test Sigmund Freud's (Viggo Mortensen) theories on Sabina and, in fact, successfully treats her. Two years later Jung and Sabina meet Freud in person, and Jung takes over the treatment of Otto Gross, whose influence leads Jung to begin an affair with Sabina, contributing to a rift with Freud. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel, Sarah Gadon
  • Director: David Cronenberg
  • Genres: Drama

What's the Buzz?

So-so
Fans say So-So
154 fans
Read fan reviews
Go
Critics say Go
76 out of 100
Read critic reviews
Write your own review

Fan Reviews

Oh No!
A Dangerous Fiction

by One-in-Many-in-One

Ranks up there with "Holy Smoke" as one of the most unwatchable films,says my grown son. The dialog was bad, the scene selection was bad, the editing was as bad as we've seen in a studio-produced...

So-so
A Dangerous Method

by subabe

For all of the film's Merchant Ivory production values and imaginative cinematography, the end result was as deeply felt and emotionally wrenching as watching paint dry or sitting still for 109...

Oh No!
Very disappointing

by arthouse_snobbery

I was waiting for this film to come out for some time but once I went to see it, I couldn't wait for it to be over. It was one of those films where you walk in and after the first 10 minutes of...

Read more fan reviews

Critic Reviews

100
The Hollywood Reporter
| Todd McCarthy

Precise, lucid and thrillingly disciplined, this story of boundary-testing in the early days of psychoanalysis is brought to vivid life by the outstanding lead performances of Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender. Read full review

91
Entertainment Weekly
| Lisa Schwarzbaum

Intelligent conversation about the interplay of erotic and destructive urges takes place over cups of tea in fine bone china. Yet the movie is a radically modern story about sex. Read full review

88
Boston Globe
| Wesley Morris

This is the best thing Mortensen's ever done. His slow, paunchy, hairy Freud has a cavalier authority and a capacity for drollery. He's also seductively wise in a way that makes both Fassbender and Knightley, as very good as they are, also seem uncharacteristically callow. Read full review

88
Rolling Stone
| Peter Travers

The actors give it their all, especially Knightley, whose jaw- jutting, heavily accented and unfairly criticized portrayal gives the film its fighting spirit. Read full review

Read more critic reviews

Offers

Photos

Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein in "A Dangerous Method."