Shadows on the Wall | Freud's Last Session

Freud’s Last Session

dir Matthew Brown
scr Mark St Germain, Matthew Brown
prd Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson, Hannah Leader, Tristan Orpen Lynch
with Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, Orla Brady, Rhys Mannion, George Andrew-Clarke, Padraic Delaney, Stephen Campbell Moore, Peter Warnock, Aidan McArdle
release US 22.Dec.23,
UK 7.Jun.24
23/Ireland 1h48

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Based on Mark St Germain's play, this drama imagines a meeting between late-in-life Sigmund Freud and author CS Lewis just as World War II breaks out. It's a terrific premise, pitting two iconic worldviews against each other to confront ideas about faith, morality and relationships. Director Matthew Brown has made a terrific-looking film, with strong period detail and a witty script. And it's anchored by two riveting performances.

Just after Germany invades Poland in September 1939, Oxford don Lewis (Goode) pays a visit to Freud (Hopkins) at his home in London. Freud is convalescing after treatment for oral cancer, while his daughter Anna (Fries) takes over as lecturer to his sexist male university students. With a shared curiosity about humanity, the two men find more in common than expected, including lonely childhoods and daddy issues. But both of them are avoiding the most important things on their minds, as the conversation sparks memories and shifts perceptions. Not that either will admit it.

Carefully set in its time and place, the film quickly establishes a lush look and feel, with fascinatingly cluttered sets, rainy streets, ominous radio announcements and sudden air-raid sirens. The production design adds irony at every turn, with scenes set in a local church-turned-bomb shelter and Freud's collection of religious figurines. And the web of side-plots and flashbacks weave together coherently to bring out themes without offering simplistic answers to big questions.

On peak form, Hopkins gives Freud a superbly offbeat sense of humour, poking fun and provoking thought while also dealing with his own debilitating pain. And Goode digs deep as Lewis, a thoughtful man who came upon his complex faith almost against his will. Both men flicker back to their childhoods, with a particularly strong sequence involving a teen Lewis (Mannion) in the trenches of the Great War. Meanwhile, Fries brings Anna to life as well, including her yearning to be accepted with her partner Dorothy (Balfour).

Thankfully, this conversation between an atheist and a Christian apologist never descends into the most obvious arguments. Even though it's somewhat stagy, the script uses unusual nuance to tackle the question of why a creator would allow so much pain. So the film entertains us as we watch these two men grapple with feelings they hide behind their intellect, challenging each other pointedly while also looking into themselves. It's a sharp reminder that the smartest people on earth are those who listen and are willing to change their minds.

themes, language, violence 29.May.24

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