London Film Fest 2011 Day 13 - A DANGEROUS METHOD

A DANGEROUS METHOD is a deeply disappointing movie - dull, vacuous, with a desperately poor central performance by Keira Knightley - little sexual or emotional tension - it rolls through its scenes until it comes to a sudden halt. Frankly, the most exciting that happened during the Gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival was some poor sod having a seizure. Fans of Cronenberg's dark, dangerous films will be underwhelmed, I suspect, and those of us looking for Christopher Hampton's trademark elegant screen-writing will feel let down.  And if you want to see Michael Fassbender in psychologically challenging material, look no further than SHAME.

The central conflicts of the movie are almost bourgeois in their banality.  The first conflict is between Dr Carl Jung (Fassbender) and his one-time mentor Dr Freud (Viggo Mortensen).  Jung thinks not all neuroses have sexual origins, and that psychiatry should also embrace spiritualism.  Freud thinks Jung is discrediting an already embattled new field of research with his mystic nonsense.  Moreover, the poor Viennese academic resents Jung's rich wife.  The second conflict is between Jung and Sabine Spielrein (Knightley), Jung's patient, lover and finally his academic peer. Initially traumatised by her father, whose spankings excited her, Sabine progresses to become a psychiatrist of greater skill than Jung. Moreover, in the Freud-Jung conflict, she sides with Freud. She also escapes their love affair a stronger woman, whereas we are asked to believe that engaging in sado-masochistic sexual practices precipitated Jung's nervous breakdown.  

All this should have made for an intellectually challenging, daring, complex film.  But it does not.  The almost sterile production design; stilted camera-work; and almost coy treatment of the sexual material make for what can only be described as a kind of TV afternoon movie biopic.  I am hard-pressed to think of less erotically charged sex scenes, and a movie about overcoming sexual repression where the actors faces seem so wooden.  Worst of all, in the early scenes of most acute neuroses, Keira Knightley acts "at" being mad, rather than portraying the emotional truth of the scenes. Her physical contortions are mannered rather than real - the part was simply too challenging for her.  Still, the movie could've survived this had the script been more profound, the conflicts mined more fully, and the camera-work more innovative.  I wanted to see more of the anti-semitism and mistrust of psychiatry in Vienna. I wanted to see more of the reaction to Otto Gross' (Vincent Cassel) breakdown.  This film desperately needed widening out. 

A DANGEROUS METHOD played Toronto and Venice 2011. It opened earlier this year in Italy. It opens in Germany on November 10th, in the Netherlands on November 17th, in the USA on November 23rd, in Spain on November 25th, in France on November 30th, in Denmark on January 12th 2012, in Sweden and the UK on February 10th and in Hungary on March 8th.

CHERI - luscious frou-frou with too sporadic flashes of psychological insight

Stephen Frears is an uneven director. Occasionally he makes devastating, gritty dramas chronicling the savagery of life and love, viz. DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE. But most of the time, he makes luscious costume dramas that skate delicately over deeper, unexplored issues, and seem primarily conceived for the heritage industry. They are the cinematic equivalent of those cheap tea-towels and mugs you can buy near Marble Arch and on Piccadilly, embossed with pictures of Princess Diana. In this category, I place works like MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS and THE QUEEN. Very rarely, Frears directs a movie that combines luscious cinematography and costumes with real psychological weight, viz. DANGEROUS LIASONS. So where does CHERI fit into this typography? Sadly, mostly in the luscious frou-frou category, although there are flashes of psychological insight in the final scenes.

Based on the novels by French author, Colette, CHERI chronicles the affair between a middle-aged high-class courtesan, Lea, and a twenty-year old bored fop, Cheri. They live together for six years, up-ending conventional social mores. She pays for and keeps him, organises everything, and takes the dominant role. He is the kept woman. The affair ends when his spiteful mother, a former rival of his lover, arranges his marriage to a wealthy young girl. Lea is gracious and lets him go, even, in extremis, giving him the moral courage to make a life with his wife, knowing that, in her old age, she cannot keep him. But, for both of them, this pragmatic decision will prove a moral disaster - because they really were in love.

The resulting film is beautiful to behold, the costumes, locations and colour schemes speak of luxury, indulgence, over-ripe summers and a true belle-epoque. Alexandre Desplat's score is similarly delicious. One would never tell that the characters were living on the verge of the First World War and in a time of increasingly radical politics. Michelle Pfeiffer looks lovely as Lea, and perfectly captures the fact that a well-preserved fifty-year old can look ravishing but can also, in unforgiving light, look gaunt and care-worn. The final scene, where she coolly appraises her lined face in a mirror, is chilling and touching. Every woman can relate. Rupert Friend is similarly well-cast as Cheri. He is similarly beautiful and captures the cynicism of a dandy who is bored with the champagne life but also too lazy and vapid to commit to anything more profound. He does a tremendously good job of making a superficial character likeable. The supporting characters are also well-cast with the exception of Kathy Bates - a brilliant actress but just not convincing as an ageing former beauty and about 10 years too old for the role.

The substantial problem with the movie is that it skates over the deeper psychological insights of the novel - the torment is too tepid - and makes nothing of the characters' isolated self-absorption as a grand metaphor for the society that would be swept away by the war. Stylistically, there was too much exposition, largely in the form of a clumsy voice-over narration from Frears himself. It seemed to hint at the style of JULES AND JIM but was clumsy, unnecessary and its trite tone undercut the emotional heft of the story.

CHERI played Berlin 2009 and is currently on release in the UK, Belgium and France. It opens in the Netherlands and the USA on June 26th and in Germany on August 27th. It opens in Finland on September 11th, in Norway on October 2nd, in Portugal on October 8th, in Russia on October 15th and in Spain on November 6th.

ATONEMENT - showy and weighty where it should have been slippery and elegant

ATONEMENT is handsomely designed and photographed film. But the design is so insistent as to be distracting. The classic example is the much-praised 5 minutes tracking shot of Dunkirk, which looks stunning, but advances the film not one jot. Another example is the incredibly obvious and self-conscious sound design that incorporates typewriter keys into the orchestral score. The worst example is a scene in a tea-room that Joe Wright directs as a pastiche of BRIEF ENCOUNTERS. And here we come to the heart of my criticism of ATONEMENT - Keira Knightley's mediocre performance in the central role. If it is possible, her accent becomes even more strangulated than usual - standing in sharp contrast with the more natural cadences of Benedict Cumberbatch, Saoirse Ronan et al. The limits to Knightley's range are most clearly shown in a scene between herself, James McAvoy, Romola Garai. Garai in particular, and McAvoy to a lesser extent, act her off the screen.

So what is left to like? A very impressive supporting cast, including Brenda Blethyn, Gina McKee and I thought I detected a cameo by Tobias Menzies? Most importantly, Ian McEwan's intelligent and genuinely affecting story is left almost untouched by Christopher Hampton's faithful script. I won't give a synopsis because I think it's important that you see the key events fresh in the cinema and unaffected by reviewer's interpretations. This goes to the heart of the story. Suffice to say that this is a movie about class difference, thwarted love, misperceptions, a lifetime of regret and the impossibility of narrative.

Apparently, some reviewers have hailed ATONEMENT as an "instant classic". Let's be clear. It's no FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN. Nor is it BRIEF ENCOUNTERS. It is a well put-together if highly self-conscious WW2 drama in which a better than usual script offsets a weaker than usual leading lady. As such, it justifies a viewing but not hysteria.

ATONEMENT played Venice 2007 and is currently on release in the UK. It opens in Italy and Finland later in September and in Turkey in October. It opens in Argentina, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden in November. It opens in the US, Singapore, Slovakia and Australia in December and in Belgium, France, Denmark and Spain in January 2008. It finally rolls into Mexico in March.