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A Dangerous Method | 2012 | R | - 8.3.5

A glimpse into the relationship between Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Dr. Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), as they develop psychoanalysis, while interacting with patient-cum-doctor Dr. Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly). Also with Vincent Cassel and Sarah Gadon. Directed by David Cronenberg. [1:39]

SEX/NUDITY 8 - A man and a woman kiss passionately and have sex: the man thrusts on top of the woman (they both appear fully clothed and no nudity is visible), she gasps and we later see a bed cloth with blood on it, implying she had been a virgin.
 A man and a woman are seen engaging in sex: the man is behind the woman as he clutches her chest and kisses her face (the man is shirtless and wearing a pair of overalls and the woman's blouse and corset are partially open and we see one of her bare breasts).
 A man spanks a woman whose gown partially open (we see a portion of her bare breast); the woman moans sexually and moments later we see her in bed with the man, her bare breasts visible and sex is implied. We see a portion of a woman's bare breasts exposed by her corset as a man whips her with a belt; the woman appears sexually aroused and she moans sexually.
 A woman is shown wearing a corset and under-dress (we see a portion of her bare breast and nipple) and a man hugs her legs and rests his head in her lap. A woman kisses a man, the man remarks that he should take the initiative (implying sex), and the woman tells the man that he can take the initiative and tells him where she lives. A man and a woman kiss and the man pulls away. A man and a woman lie with their arms around each other, side by side, in a sailboat. A man kisses a woman's forehead. A man kisses a woman's hand in greeting.
 Several female nurses place a woman in a bathing tub, and she shouts as she is bathed over her clothes (no nudity is visible, but the white cloth clings to her skin). We see a woman in a bathtub with her white nightgown clinging to her body. A woman is seen nursing a baby; no nudity is visible.
 During a therapy session a woman graphically describes how she would become sexually excited when her father would punish her by spanking, explaining that she had been sexually excited from the first time she remembers being punished at the age of four; she further explains that if punishment was even mentioned or she was punished or struck by her brothers that she would become so sexually aroused that she would have to touch herself and she adds that she became excited when she was humiliated, including when a doctor had beaten dirt off her coat with a cane and she had to sexually relieve herself (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman asks a man to describe sex with his wife, and she then explains that she wants the man to "punish" her and "be ferocious." During a therapy session, a male doctor asks his female patient if she was naked when she experienced a hallucination; the doctor then asks if she had been masturbating and the woman says yes.
 During a therapy session between two male doctors, the "patient" doctor poses a question to the other man, asking if he would like to engage in sexual relations with one of his patients; the man later asks if the other man had ever slept with any of his patients, the doctor says "Of course not" and the two doctors then discuss how one of them sleeps with his female patients after convincing them that they are sexually driven to be with many other people. During a therapy session between two male doctors, the "patient" doctor crudely tells the other man to have sex with one of his patients who showed a sexual interest in him, saying he should not deny her "such a simple pleasure." A man asks another man (both are doctors) if he had taken one of his patients as a mistress, and the man denies the accusation. Two male doctors, during a therapy session, discuss sexual repression, and how another male doctor is obsessed with sexual diagnoses because he never has sex. A doctor tells another doctor, during a therapy session, that he had proposed to his patient that they become lovers and she agreed. A man asks another man (both doctors) if the man's female patient is a virgin, and he responds that the woman is certainly a virgin. Two men (both doctors) discuss, using medical terms, the teaching of sexualized mental health disorders. A man warns another man that they need to "sweeten the pill" when telling the public about mental health disorders from sexual manners. Two men (both doctors) frequently discuss how one of the men's very sexualized medical research was being dismissed or interpreted incorrectly by the public. A woman and her doctor discuss how she is interested in the operas of Wagner, specifically the incest in the Siegfried myth. A doctor discusses with a woman how he believes another doctor is completely inflexible with his diagnoses of everything revolving around sexual dysfunction. During a therapy session, a doctor and a woman discuss monogamy briefly, and the doctor asks why so much effort should be placed in "suppressing the most natural instinct." Throughout the movie we hear two doctors discuss sexualized matters, including how an object in a dream represents the male genitalia and that the man is harboring a sexual frustration. Two doctors discuss how a woman's symptoms can be diagnosed as "classic nymphomania." A woman tells her male doctor that she has no sexual experience and it is strange, as she had come to him with a sexualized mental disorder. A man jokes to another man (both doctors) that he had "presented" his father with two children, one from his wife and one from his mistress; he then adds that a third child is on the way, being bore by a woman he "hardly knows." A man jokes with another man (both doctors) that he finds monogamy to be stressful, and the other man adds that sexual restraint must be practiced in order to remain a normal society. A man tells another man (both doctors) about a woman who had expressed how as a small child she would derive sexual pleasure from trying to defecate and stop herself from defecating at the same time; the other doctor makes a snide remark about the patient being stuck in the "anal stage" of development. A male doctor offhandedly tells his wife that he will be examining genitals as part of his military medical service.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A woman grabs a letter opener and cuts a man's cheek before quickly exiting the room (we see blood on the man's cheek and we later see a small scar on the man's cheek); the woman later warns the man that she could have done "far more damage" to him.
 A man gasps and faints, he falls to the ground and another man comes to his aid; the man breathes heavily, it appears as though he has experienced a heart attack and we later see the man fully recovered.
 We see inside a carriage, a woman is screaming wildly and two men hold her arms; the two men and a third man wearing medical robes are later seen carrying the woman from the carriage and into what is implied to be a mental hospital as she screams. A woman screams as two female nurses carry another shrieking woman into a bathing room, and the woman gasps in pain as they place her in a bath. A woman screams and throws off her jacket, she continues shouting and panics when a man (her doctor) picks up the jacket and strikes it with a cane; the woman shouts and grabs her jacket. Three male nurses attempt to get a woman out of a small pond, and one of them shouts, "You'll catch your death" as the woman splashes them; she laughs maniacally and tells a man that she never wants to see her doctor again. A woman grabs a man's waist, he pushes her away, and she collapses to the ground and clutches herself, gasping. A woman shouts at a man and the man tries to calm her. A woman shakes as she cries while reading a letter.
 During a therapy session a male doctor asks his female patient about the first time she had been beaten by her father, the woman explains that she had been four years old and her father had instructed her to take off her clothing; she explains that she had taken off her clothing and her father had spanked her, and that she was so frightened that she had wetted herself and her father spanked her again (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A woman explains to a doctor that her father would hit her and then demand that she kiss his hand.
 A woman appears mentally disturbed: she wretches her hands behind her back and clenches her jaw, a doctor asks her what had caused her mental anguish and the woman explains that she gets nauseous and breaks out in a cold sweat; she panics mid-sentence and stops speaking but then explains that she had a vision of her father's hand, and she clenches her hands and looks pained as she attempts to speak and goes on to describe abuse from her father. During a therapy session a woman begins to gasp and looks physically uncomfortable as she tells her doctor that she had felt a presence in her room, like a mollusk moving against her back and a cat that whispered in her ear.
 During a therapy sessions between two male doctors, one of the doctors asks the other if he had truly assisted one of his patients in killing herself; the other man explains that he simply told her how not to "botch it." During an informal therapy session between a man and a woman (both doctors) the man explains that he has been having an apocalyptic dream that a town is being consumed by a tidal wave of blood; the woman warns the man not to make himself ill in the process of healing other patients. During a therapy session between two male doctors, one of the men tells the other that he had a dream where a horse was hoisted up on cables and then dropped to the ground, but was unharmed. Two doctors discuss how one of the men had a dream about a ghost that was identified to him as "not knowing how to die"; the other doctor analyzes that the doctor wants to "put him out of his misery." A doctor discusses with another doctor (both men) during a therapy session, that he feels threatened by his father, adding that his father is extremely threatening; the first doctor then explains that the other doctor's father had asked for the man to be hospitalized. A woman tells a man that one of her interests is "suicide" and the man remarks that he will tell her doctor. A woman asks another woman (a doctor) to look after her husband, whom she believes is ill, saying that he is not sleeping well after severing a relationship with his mentor. A man's voice is heard dictating a letter to a doctor that explains that he wants the doctor to tell the man's father that he had died. We hear a voiceover of a man dictating a letter to another man, warning the man that a patient he is about to undertake "bites." A man (a doctor) half-jokingly tells a woman that he will start "ripping her to shreds" when editing her doctoral thesis. A man half-jokingly asks another man if people know they are on their way "with the plague."
 At the conclusion of the movie we read that a man had starved to death, another man had died of cancer after being driven out of Vienna by the Nazis and a woman (after being widowed) and her two daughters were taken by Nazi occupying forces and shot; finally that a man had overcome a prolonged nervous breakdown to live a healthy life and die peacefully at an old age.
 A woman squashes food between her fingers and a nurse tells the woman that she is going to tell a doctor that she is playing with her food.

LANGUAGE 5 - At least 1 F-word, 1 sexual reference, 2 anatomical terms, name-calling (philistine Swiss bourgeois complacent coward, big and unattractive, obsessively neurotic, Bohemians, brutal and sanctimonious, insane, degenerates, vile, filthy, corrupt, finicky, ridiculous, stubborn, extremely stingy with money, brilliant but erratic character, fantasist, liar).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man snorts what is presumed to be cocaine from his fingertip, and then spreads the powder on his gums. We see men and women around a table with wine in front of them, men are shown drinking sherry and we see men drinking liquor. Throughout the movie we see men smoking cigars, cigarettes and pipes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, mental health issues, polygamy/monogamy, deception, fidelity in a marriage, mysticism, revenge, doctor-patient relations, blackmail, dissolution of a friendship/mentorship.

MESSAGE - The history of psychoanalysis and the development of modern mental health therapy is very complicated.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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