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A Dangerous Method with Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley & Michael Fassbender: Disappointing

Posted on February 1, 2012 Written by ripitup

A Dangerous Method Plot

If you have seen the trailer, you’ve seen it all:

Freud (Viggo Mortensen) wants to work with Jung (Michael Fassbender), who is at the time treating a female patient (Keira Knightley). Jung is impressed by how smart and educated his patient is, and he encourages her to pursue her dreams about being a doctor. After she gets better, she enrolls in the university to become a psychiatrist. She and Jung seem to agree more on things than Jung and Freud do, as Freud is not happy with Jung’s fascination with things that aren’t %100 scientific. He is not also thrilled about Jung’s attitude towards his patients where he seems to want to be their life coach as well, and not just their doctor.

Things on Jung’s end get more more complicated as he starts sleeping with his ex-patient, and starts treating another psychiatrist. Among all the S&M and his new patient’s lack of morals and limits, Jung’s chosen path starts differ radically from Freud’s.

A Dangerous Method Review

Well, this won’t be the last time the trailer of the movie is a lot more fun than the movie itself. I’d written a positive preview based on it, but the movie well…didn’t live up to my expectations. Let’s review this in the fashion of the one word association thing they do in the movie.

Movie – disappointing

Knigthley- annoying

Jung- mental

Story: dragging

Characters: unrelatable

Freud: saner

Relationships: seriously?

Gross (Cassel’s character): gross

Yes, I was expecting a somewhat controversial and a little kinky movie. But I was also expecting it to be fun, engaging and interesting. Instead, we get too much dialogue, a Jung that needed more therapy than his patients, a female patient whose diagnosis was only left to the audience to guess, a wife that’s anti-feminism personified. …

It is not to say I don’t have anything positive to say. I do. Keira Knightley’s performance was good, it was her character that was truly annoying. We got her issues, her problems the first three-four times they showed us, so there was no need to drag it.

Carl Jung was surely more than a man who slept around with his patients, took advice from a mental patient that also happened to be psychologist, saw his kids as hindrance to his career???

In a movie where Sigmund Freud is the only one who makes sense, the characters go around in circles with annoying manners and dragging scenes, great cinematography, costume design and acting don’t impress you much.

If you like Viggo Mortensen and Cronenberg, stick with A History of Violence. A Dangerous Method has its moments, but not enough of them.

My favorite part of the movie (spoiler!!): When Sabina (Knightley) picks a side in the dispute.

Currently rated at 7 imdb. I am however once again impressed by Mortensen’s acting skills.

Also on Keira Knightley:

Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes & Guillaume Canet

London Boulevard starring Colin Farrell & Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley Trivia: Facts About the Oscar-Nominated Star of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen

Also on Michael Fassbender:

Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender Trivia

The Awesome X-Men: First Class with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon & Rose Byrne

Also on Vincent Cassel:

Derailed starring Jennifer Aniston, Clive Owen & Vincent Cassel

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan: The Movie Natalie Portman Couldn’t Save

A Dangerous Method Preview: Starring Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley & Michael Fassbender

Posted on July 22, 2011 Written by ripitup

A Dangerous Method starring Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley & Michael Fassbender. Image via cinema.com

You’ve got to love David Cronenberg. Granted, not all of his movies might be up your alley- but there’re bound to be some films Cronenberg’s you just couldn’t resist. I didn’t watch his earlier work like The Fly. And I didn’t really like much about Existenz. But Crash (starring James Spader) and Spider (starring Ralph Fiennes) are on my to-watch list, and I absolutely loved A History of Violence (starring Viggo Mortensen). And while Eastern Promises (also starring Mortensen) failed to be just as compelling and hard-hitting, it was not a mediocre experience. Now Cronenberg is back, with a really fun cast and a very tempting plot:

A Dangerous Method depicts the relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and how their great minds don’t always work alike-especially when one of them starts sleeping with a patient. It just looks too delicious to pass up- and we even have Vincent Cassel as a bonus.

Based on the book by John Kerr (A Most Dangerous Method) and the play by Christopher Hampton (The Talking Cure). Adapted by Christopher Hampton. Coming to the theaters in September.

The Trailer:

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNFisoGclFI[/pro-player]

Also on Keira Knightley:

Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes & Guillaume Canet

London Boulevard starring Colin Farrell & Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley Trivia: Facts About the Oscar-Nominated Star of Pride and Prejudice

Also on Michael Fassbender:

Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender

The Awesome X-Men: First Class with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon & Rose Byrne

Also on Vincent Cassel:

Derailed starring Jennifer Aniston, Clive Owen & Vincent Cassel

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan: The Movie Natalie Portman Couldn’t Save

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan: The Movie Natalie Portman Couldn’t Save

Posted on January 31, 2011 Written by ripitup

Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder & Ksenia Solo. Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

And this year’s most overrated movie award goes to….Black Swan. Well, maybe not even just this year’s. I think I need to give up on Darren Aronofsky’s films because after The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, I’m quitting on this guy. Requiem for a Dream was just as bleak and depressing it was supposed to be. It was a hard thing to watch but at least it was engaging. I don’t think Black Swan and The Fountain were meant to be boring. Oh well.

There are many things wrong with Black Swan but let’s go over the plot first:

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a talented and dedicated ballet dancer. She lives with her controlling mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) and lives to get the dual role of Black Swan/White Swan in Swan Lake during the new season. Her teacher Thomas (Vincent Cassel) thinks she is perfect as White Swan but isn’t sure she can pull the evil twin off. After all, she is timid, sexually repressed and pale. But somehow she gets the part and as the show gets closer, she starts getting more anxious. She is also seeing stuff. And what’s up with the new hot student Lily (Mila Kunis) who seems to want to be “close friends”. Will Nina be able to perform without losing it?

I’ll admit to seeing Black Swan purely because I gave in to the hype. Rated 8.6 on IMDB? Nominated for 5 Oscars? Golden Globe for Natalie Portman? I thought maybe it might be worth the time. Trust me, it isn’t.

Black Swan is one of the most annoying and boring films I have seen. People see movies for many different reasons. Sometimes you want to get blown away with imagination. Inception does that. Sometimes you just want an interesting true story told in a compelling way. The Social Network kicks butt at that. And sometimes, all you need is pure, pop-corn entertainment and The Tourist gives you all the fluff you need in a pretty package. Or you just want a decent epic movie with all the costumes and acting and budget. This year we don’t have epic but we do have a period piece – King’s Speech.

Now, these reasons above are also my reasons for seeing movies. I want to have fun or be in awe or be inspired or a combination of these, if I’m lucky. But I always want an enjoyable story. I want an enjoyable soundtrack. And I want interesting characters. Black Swan offers none. And don’t get me started on the dialogue.

The movie is all about Nina’s uninteresting life. She was raised by an obsessive mother, seduced by a pervert of a teacher and well, she is not so normal herself. Nina is boring, so is her story. The problem is, this drama/thriller is not dramatic or thrilling. I think it could make a lovely dance show if told in 30-45 minutes. But as a movie? Doesn’t work. And frankly, I wish Ricky Gervais had made some jokes about this one at the Golden Globes too.

Oh well. The only times I had fun watching this was when I saw Lost Girl’s Kenzi- Ksenia Solo, cast as a bitch. And it was nice taking a peek at Winona Ryder. Being a 90s kid, she has nostalgic value. But these two aren’t enough to make the experience bearable.

Fun notes:

– Barbara Hershey dated Lost’s Sayid Naveen Andrews for 10 years. They broke up in 2009. She is 21 years older than Naveen.

– French actor Vincent Cassel is married to Italian babe of an actress Monica Belluci and both Vincent and Monica co-starred with English actor Clive Owen in separate films. Vincent Cassel played the baddie in the thriller/drama Derailed, and Monica Belluci starred in the highly fast and entertaining action film Shoot ‘Em Up.

– Vincent and Monica also starred in the extra-controversial film Irreversible together.

– Maybe I shouldn’t swear off Darren’s films just yet as he is directing in Hugh Jackman in the second Wolverine movie. If he makes Wolverine boring… Fingers crossed, he won’t.

Other Natalie Portman Movies:

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits: The Natalie Portman Movie We Aren’t Excited About

Coming Soon:Thor starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins & Natalie Portman

Overrated: Closer starring Natalie Portman, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts & Jude Law

Preview: No Strings Attached starring Portman & Ashton Kutcher

Beautiful Girls starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman

Wicker Park starring Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne & Matthew Lillard

Posted on December 9, 2010 Written by ripitup

Wicker Park starring Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne & Matthew Lillard

Plot

Matthew (Josh Hartnett) has a promising career in advertising and a beautiful girlfriend named Rebecca (Jessica Paré). However he is unsure about proposing, as deep down, he has never gotten over the love of his life, Lisa (Diane Kruger). She has left him without saying anything 2 years ago. When he thinks he saw her at a restaurant, he decides to ditch his business trip and look for her. The clues take him to a hotel and then an apartment. There he gets a real surprise, because the woman living there isn’t his Lisa but a brunette who claims that her name is Lisa (Rose Byrne). She also happens to be wearing Lisa’s clothes and shoes…

Matt has also run into his old friend Luke (Matthew Lillard) who runs a shoe shop and knows what Lisa meant to him. But he thinks that Matt’s quest for Lisa is crazy and he is more concerned with his love life. Despite pretending to be a player, he is actually a nice and decent guy with a huge crush on Alex, a theater actress. Alex’s behavior is highly unpredictable for reasons Luke might never find out. Alex can be the key to everything mysterious about Lisa’s disappearance. But will Matt be able to find out?

Wicker Park is a really solid mystery/romance. It is just different. It is very emotional and revolves around the 4 characters, especially Matthew, Alex and Lisa. It is a gripping drama romance with some thriller-like elements and its characters are just deliciously flawed. All of the main characters make bad choices, act stupidly and/or naively and/or selfishly. They also have redeeming qualities that make us feel for them. The music is really good (feat. Stereophonics, Coldplay, The White Stripes and more). I’d say that it is one of those rare romance movies where cynics and romantics will both have a good time.

The bad things? Oh, the characters are sometimes so monumentally stupid that it makes you want to smack them. And there is this whole string of (bad) coincidences that don’t always feel natural. And Matt is the right guy for only Lisa. For any other girl, he is one of the worst choices. So this is not a romance film where I will just talk about how unrealistically awesome the protagonist is. Because he is a very real character. So yes, the movie has its flaws but character development and a decent dose of realism are definitely not among them.

Background

Yes, the script is not technically original as It is based on the 1996 French film L’ Appartment starring Star Romane Bohringer, Vincent Cassel, Jean-Philippe Écoffey and Monica Belluci. It was written & directed by Gilles Mimount.

This 2004 American version was written by Brandon Boyce and directed by Paul McGuigan (Push, Lucky Number Slevin). I’ll see the original French film but if you haven’t already seen it, this version is pretty good.

Currently rated 6.8 on IMDB. L’ Appartement is rated 7.6. For Wicker Park, my vote is a solid 7, and in some aspects even 7.5.

Fun note: Vincent Cassel and Monica Belluci, the two starring actors of L’ Appartement,got married in 1999, 3 years after the making of the film. They have 2 kids together.

A Dangerous Method with Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley & Michael Fassbender: Disappointing

A Dangerous Method Preview: Starring Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley & Michael Fassbender

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan: The Movie Natalie Portman Couldn’t Save

Wicker Park starring Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne & Matthew Lillard

Other Diane Kruger Movies

The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere, Jesse Eisenberg & Terrence Howard. Feat. Kruger

Copying Beethoven starring Diane Kruger & Ed Harris

Other Josh Hartnett Films and Posts

40 Days and 40 Nights starring Josh Hartnett & Shannyn Sossamon

Hollywood’s Tall Actors feat. Hartnett, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds& more

Rose Byrne

Damages TV Show Review – starring Rose Byrne and Glenn Close

Adam starring Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne