A Dangerous Method

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “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.”

  Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter · 100

• “It's a handsome and stimulating film, noteworthy more for its terrific acting and provocative ideas than for any kind of dark Cronenbergundian genius.”

  Andrew O'Hehir, Salon · 100

• “Cronenberg's film is at once a lucid movie of ideas, a compelling narrative, and a splendidly acted love story.”

  J. Hoberman, Village Voice · 100

• “Mostly, though, A Dangerous Method is a suave chamber piece: a series of glimpses of two 20th-century intellectual titans, in friendship and separation, and the story of a remarkable woman who history had swallowed up, brought into the light again.”

  Liam Lacey, The Globe and Mail (Toronto) · 100

• “In the movie's final shot, Jung's confidence crumbles and he looks supremely troubled, still uncertain of a world he once believed could be explained with textual prowess. Better than any analysis, his expression sums up the dangerous method at the heart of every Cronenberg movie.”

  Eric Kohn, IndieWire · 91