FREUD’S LAST SESSION Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Matt Brown
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam.
September 1939. WWII has erupted across Europe as Neville Chamberlain announces that Britain is at war with Germany.
In London on a rainy and dreary afternoon, famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (who had fled Europe ahead of the Nazis) meets with Oxford scholar and former atheist turned theologian C S Lewis, who is best known for writing the series of children’s books including the bestselling Narnia Chronicles. Lewis had challenged Freud’s views on God and was invited to Freud’s house to debate their opposing views. Lewis arrives late and is castigated by Freud.
The subsequent conversation between the two explores big ideas and themes such as human frailty, the futility of war, death, grief, past traumas, science, literature and J R R Tolkien, the existence of God and, of course, sex. Through their discussion we also get to learn a little about their respective backgrounds and how this has shaped their lives and beliefs. Freud died a couple of weeks after this meeting having suffered from a terminal form of mouth cancer.
A fictitious conceit, Freud’s Last Session is an adaptation of the 2009 stage play written by Mark St Germain, who hails from a background in television, which drew its inspiration from the fact that Freud met an unnamed Oxford scholar in the last weeks of his life. Although the identity of the visitor remains unknown, St Germain imagined what would transpire if it was Lewis. And although the two men start out with opposing views they come to discover some common ground and a mutual respect.
St Germain researched the lives of both Freud and Lewis to ensure veracity as to their ideas. Some of the dialogue is imagined while much of it draws upon their own well published point of view. Director Matt Brown (The Man Who Knew Infinity, the biopic of academic and mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan) attempts to open the drama with flashbacks to Lewis’ experiences in WWI and a subplot that follows Freud’s daughter Ann (Liv Lisa Freis, from the tv series Berlin Babylon, etc).
The subplot following Anna, herself a pioneer in the field of child psychoanalysis and a respected teacher at university, explores the unhealthy attachment she has to her father. Anna is also involved in a relationship with Dorothy (Jodi Balfour) which is frowned upon by her father.
But the film remains very much a stuffy theatrical piece and is constrained by its origins. The film is also heavily dialogue driven as the two men engage in some verbal fireworks, and most of the action is confined to Freud’s study. Luciana Arrighi’s production design is good and has been aided with the recreation of the numerous sculptures that decorated Freud’s office space. The film has been nicely shot by cinematographer Ben Smithard (The Father, etc) who works in closeup to make the material feel more intimate and claustrophobic.
The drama is a character study and is shaped by the solid performances of its lead cast. Anthony Hopkins seems to be enjoying something of a purple patch late in his career with strong performances in dramas including his Oscar winning turn in The Father, and he is superb as Freud. His performance is full of bluster and intelligence as he argues his position forcefully and with a touch of wit. (In an ironic piece of casting Hopkins once played Lewis in the moving 1993 drama Shadowlands.) Here Matthew Goode steps into the role of Lewis and he brings a sense of respect, intelligence and restraint to his performance. Fries is also good as Anna and her role has been expanded for this film adaptation. Jeremy Northam has a small but important role as Alfred Jones, a neurologist and longtime friend of Freud’s and who helped euthanize him in 1939.
As with the recent Origin, which also explored some big themes, the esoteric conversation between these two revered twentieth century geniuses doesn’t really connect with mainstream audiences. Freud’s Last Session is a film that will mainly appeal to discerning audiences who relish sophisticated and intelligent dialogue and interesting philosophical ideas.
★★☆
