Freud’s Last Session – An Ideological Clash of the Titans

Film adaptations of successful stage plays have often gone on to find success on screen. The best keep it simple as sometimes that staged feel remains as their dialog-heavy structure could easily feel repetitive for audiences looking for more excitement but excitement is truly in the eye of the beholder. Freud’s Last Session, a film adaptation of the play of the same name, maintains a level of excitement through staging and sensational performances from Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode as the titular Freud and the author, then professor, C.S. Lewis. For a film such as this one, it can only go as far as its performances and the two offer the kind of chemistry that helps bring audiences into the room with them. Based on a hypothetical encounter between both titans, the film essentially sees the two debating a trove of topics as it interweaves their pasts, presents, and their relationships as a means to deliver insight and add context to these men’s experiences through the lens of their respective arguments. Essentially a film of two characters talking to each other for 100+ minutes, they provide other avenues for it to break up those scenes and go further with the story and characters than what the original stage version could accomplish (original stage play creator Mark St. Germain returned to co-write the film adaptation along with director Matt Brown).

Freud’s Last Session takes place in London on September 3rd, 1939, mere days following the start of WWII where Freud (Hopkins), at the latter stages of his life, invites the then professor of theology C.S. Lewis (Goode) to his home for a heated debate about the existence of God. History states that he met met an unnamed scholar on that day, three weeks before he died, but their alleged encounter here is fictional. Freud, the renowned psychoanalyst, was a staunch atheist who fled his native Austria and Hitler’s forces along with his daughter Anna (Fries), also a psychoanalyst, while Lewis was a former atheist turned devout Christian. Despite being an atheist, Freud was fascinated by the courage of the latter’s convictions. The ensuing war made for an interesting backdrop as the atrocities committed at the hands of the Nazis would make anyone question what God’s plan truly was instead of blindly submitting in it based on faith. This ultimately served as a jumping off point as their conversation shifted its way to a variety of topics where nothing was off the table as it related to their lives and the root of their beliefs. A relationship built on mutual respect, Freud and Lewis’ rollercoaster exchange was as compelling as it was thought-provoking, asking many of the questions that continue to be relevant today. Audiences sit as an unbiased fly on the wall, watching Freud and Lewis debate without the film tilting their debate in either favor.

Breaking up dialog-heavy scenes between Freud and Lewis were several flashback sequences used to flesh out each character outside the lens of their debate, highlighting how they and their stances were shaped by their personal experiences and their relationships. Freud’s strong feelings against religion, declaring it superstition or a means to fill the void left by a missing father. Exiled to London, for which he would live the final year of his life, he suffered from debilitating oral cancer. Losing his mother at a young age, Lewis turned to fantasy as an escape from that grief and his trauma while serving in the trenches in France during WWI. Injured in the same incident that caused the death of his best friend, the end of his relationship with his best friend’s mother, who he vowed to watch over had his friend not survived, led to his reawakening into Christianity. Using faith as a throughline to trace the root of their beliefs, they informed their debate in an engaging way. That being said, for some, its inherent staginess will be hard to look past even as its attempts to move away from it won’t quite be enough.

The word “boring” is one likely to be used to describe the film. While not necessarily groundbreaking in terms of themes, its drabness may not make is as inspiring either. However, what saves Freud’s Last Session and holds it together are the aforementioned sensational performances from Hopkins and Goode. Their captivating chemistry breathes life into the film even though it may lack the depth that some may want. Though lacking in the way of fireworks, the two work as ideological opposites, at opposite stages of their respective lives, trying to find a middle ground through a debate built on a mutual respect for one another. This contrast is reflected through their performances with Hopkins providing the more showy of the two. Meanwhile, Fries is left on an island as Anna Freud.

At the end of the day, Freud’s Last Session is a fascinating two-parter that may not be as deep or groundbreaking as it hoped to be but sensational performances from Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode make it work.

still courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.