Freud’s Last Session
This stodgy adaptation of Mark St. Germain’s 2009 play forsakes the passion of the conversation in the conversion, despite the efforts of Hopkins and Goode.
Lost in thought: Anthony Hopkins
Image courtesy of Sony Picture Classics
At the onset of World War II, an unnamed Oxford professor called on the ailing Sigmund Freud at his home in London. Mark St. Germain’s 2009 play (of the same name) supposes that the professor was none other than a young C.S. Lewis, prior to his worldwide fame as a theologian and the author of the Narnia chronicles. Sustained by a diet of morphine and whiskey, Freud (Anthony Hopkins) shuffles around his London study. The date is 3 September of 1939, just 20 days before Freud’s death and two days after the beginning of the Second World War. On Freud’s invitation, Lewis (Matthew Goode) arrives to discuss his 1933 book Pilgrim’s Regress, an allegorical text on the hypocrisy of various philosophical and artistic movements.
While the meeting of the minds makes an interesting premise, director Matthew Brown struggles to render the encounter for the cinema screen. Originally a theatrical two-hander, the film (co-written by Brown and St. Germain) attempts to expand the story by giving voice to Anna Freud. While that expansion does succeed in taking the story outside of Freud’s study, it also dilutes the fencing match between the two intellects. The addition of flashbacks also strives to break up the single locale setting while further establishing a biographical basis for the viewer. These also divert the debate, as each man aimlessly trolls through his memory, recalling triumphs and failures that shaped them.
Essentially a gentleman’s disagreement, neither side seems that interested in putting up a real fight for what they believe in, and therein lies the problem. Unlike the vitality of having a debate play out in front of an audience on the stage, there is a tepidness to the conversation here, with the film content to focus on the men’s biographies. Despite best efforts by Hopkins and Goode, what follows is an exchange frequently overtaken by flashbacks and interrupted by subplot. What does manage to shine through is insight into the way each man thinks and some context as to why. The script makes good use of historical facts, including Freud’s reliance on his daughter and his canine assistant, the Chinese Chow Jofi. It’s a shame that more sparks aren’t allowed to fly before the neurologist and Christian apologist agree to disagree. Ironically, Hopkins played C.S. Lewis in another film (also adapted from a play), the far superior Shadowlands directed by Sir Richard Attenborough.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, Orla Brady, David Shields, Pádraic Delaney.
Dir Matthew Brown, Pro Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson, Hannah Leader, Tristan Orpen Lynch, Robert Stillman, Enzo Zelocchi and Matthew Brown, Screenplay Mark St. Germain and Matthew Brown, from the stage play by Mark St. Germain, Ph Ben Smithard, Pro Des Luciana Arrighi, Ed Paul Tothill, Music Coby Brown, Costumes Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh.
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland/Last Session Productions/Subotica Productions/14 Sunset-Sony Pictures Classics.
122 mins. 2023. UK/USA. US Rel: 22 December 2023. UK Rel: 14 June 2024. Cert. PG-13
