I thought all the performances in A Dangerous Method were very strong. Fassbender is very engaging as Jung. Keira Knightley continues to strike me as an underrated actress, turning in another fine, understated performance. Viggo really transcends his usual screen persona to bring us an interesting Freud. And that guy Vincent Cassel is incredible as the sex-crazed Otto Gross.

So what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that the film is not very good. It’s entertaining enough, and I felt only mildly sorry that I went to see it, but in the end it’s the same old story. They just didn’t write enough interesting dialog, and the screenplay is very obviously a poorly re-envisioned stage-play. They didn’t do justice to Jung’s ideas or Freud’s ideas, and they didn’t portray the split between Jung and Freud convincingly at all. Basically the film boils down to some guy who can’t stop horse-whipping Keira Knightley (or thinking about it,) and whose weakness in this regard destroys him in the end – clearly something went amiss when they put this movie together.

It’s a funny film. It’s strangely superficial. It seems better than it really is as you are watching it, and then afterward you are left thinking about how little you actually took away from the film. See it if you can enjoy good performances in a crappy film (it never works for me.)