“Freud’s Last Session” is a film that’s based on a stage play (by Mark St. Germain) that’s based on a book (The Question of God, by Armand Nicholi). Even through multiple adaptations, co-writer and director Matt Brown‘s project feels very stagy, underwritten, and less than insightful, despite two very strong performances from Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode.
Two days after the start of World War II, professor (and future author) C.S. Lewis (Goode) and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (Hopkins) have a meeting of the minds in Freud’s flat in London, where they discuss everything from Lewis’ haunting trauma from his service as a solider in the first World War to a spirited debate over the existence of a God. Freud believes the concept of a God is “ludicrous” and that Lewis is nothing but a “Christian apologist.” Their discussion turns to more personal matters, including Freud’s refusal to accept his daughter Anna’s (Liv Lisa Fries) homosexuality and his declining health from oral cancer, as well as Lewis and his unconventional relationship with his best friend’s mother.
This is, of course, a very talky and conversational film, but Goode and Hopkins carry it with great proficiency. Their banter feels natural, and there are moments of thoughtful witticism that add a nice tone to this draggy art house drama. There is enough to entertain, but the film spends most of its time preaching to the intellectual atheist choir. Interestingly, the story also is a little off-putting to the very same people when it expresses the ignorant notion that atheists don’t believe because they’re angry at God. There are enough compelling moments that keep things interesting, but this is a film that you watch for the performances more than anything else.
Some will be disappointed to learn that this is simply a work of fiction, and the meeting isn’t something that really occurred. That’s not to say the two great minds didn’t meet in their lifetimes, but the film doesn’t exactly tell a verifiable true story.
The majority of “Freud’s Last Session” is packed with philosophical ramblings and a cerebral repartee that will cause fatigue in even the most sophisticated viewers, and the film eventually stalls from its rigid staginess.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 