Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, Orla Brady, George Andrew-Clarke, Rhys Mannion, Pádraic Delaney, Stephen Campbell-Moore, Aiden McArdle, Tarek Bishara, Nina Kolomiitseva, Gary Buckley, Emmet Kirwan, David Shields, Anna Amalie Blomeyer.
Perfect for the stage, but perhaps in many eyes not good enough for the large screen, in that itself the message is lost in psychoanalysis and treatment, the thought that one piece of art cannot exist in two or more different realms of the public’s mind; this schism is a mindset that cannot afford space in the human experience.
Some of the greatest plays have turned heads on screen and vice versa, and whilst there is a possible reason why they could fail, the inevitable two hander will resonate closely with the watcher if they allow the subject matter to be examined closely, to look deeply, to focus on the conversation rather the lack of action; and arguably one of the most intriguing near two-handers of recent times comes in the form of a conversation, a meeting of minds that might not have taken place.
To be in the room when great minds meet is to surely be struck by awe, but the makers of Freud’s Last Session have gone a step further by creating art from imagination. Based on the play by Mark St. Germain, of which was also taken from the book The Question Of God by Armand Nicholi, the large screen unveils a meeting between the renowned psychiatrist and an Oxford Don, for which the situation allows for it to have been the equally impressive C.S. Lewis.
Whilst there are other characters who make appearances throughout the pause in narrative, not least the legendary daughter of Sigmund, Anna, and Ernest Jones, played with understanding by Jeremy Northam, the film digs deep in o the relationship between God and science, and how both men’s lives have been shaped with their complex arrangement with life and the question of the soul.
Freud’s Last Session is not an easy film to digest, but it is edifying to look back upon and find the truth in both arguments presented as the two men talk intelligently to each other, and against the backdrop of the outbreak of World War Two, Freud’s uneasy alliance with suicide as he succumbs to oral cancer, and Lewis’ own fear of a repeat of a war that he was thrust headlong into as a younger man.
A fascinating insight into the realm of exploration of the mind, of the fears and allusions it holds from childhood and the wrecking ball that comes from looking through the eyes of death close up towards life’s end; a hard discussion, but completely worth the time invested.
Ian D. Hall