freud's last session
★★★★★
starring: anthony hopkins, matthew goode, liv lisa fries, and jeremy northam
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REVIEWER: lyall carter
Freud invites iconic author C.S. Lewis to debate the existence of God.
C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite people to have ever walked the planet. From reading his Narnia books when I was a child (The Horse and His Boy is still my firm favorite) to his other more theological fare in Mere Christianity and The Great Divorce, Lewis shaped a lot of my life by his works. So much so that I visited his house, The Kilns, and his and Tolkien’s pub, The Eagle and Child, when I was in Oxford.
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So, as a lifelong fan, I was excited to see Lewis’ younger self portrayed on the big screen opposite the actor, Anthony Hopkins, who had portrayed him as an older man thirty years prior in Attenborough’s Shadowlands. Not only that, he would do intellectual battle with one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century. And it does not disappoint.
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A rarity in mainstream cinema, Freud’s Last Session is an exercise in intellectual sparring punctuated with soul gripping humanity perfectly embodied in the performances of Hopkins and Goode. One of 2024’s best films.
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Adapted by Mark St. Germain from his off Broadway smash, Freud’s Last Session, is set on the eve of the Second World War as two of the greatest minds of the 20th century, father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and children’s author C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) converges for their own personal battle over the existence of God, the future of mankind and the complex relationships that shaped them.
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From the outset, this feels very much like a play production in the best kind of way. The scenes are stripped of any unnecessary distraction whether that comes from production design or too many superfluous supporting characters. This story is about two intellectual giants, pitted against each other, and we can have no distractions whatsoever.
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There is a poetry here to the dialogue as well, with much of it lifted, if slightly adapted, from the writings of the two men. There was always the fear that whoever crafted this film would fall to one side or the other of Freud and Lewis’ argument, but they don’t do that. They let the two men argue their case and then leave it over to us, the audience, to decide what we think.
It’s also the way in which they debate that's remarkable here. They go at it, hammer and tongs, nothing off the table. But they not only allow the other space to respond, but they obviously have high respect for one another; a lesson for our own time in how to disagree agreeably.
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But apart from the intellectual vigor and wit, it’s the humanity on display that is the real heart and soul, the crux, of this film. Freud being plagued by ever worsening health and Lewis by his demons from World War I all loom large over proceedings. They aren’t portrayed as some untouchable giants here, but as humans, flawed and failing.
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Hopkins is, and it’s astonishing to say so after his decades of brilliance, in career best form here. Snarling and dismissive in one moment, to cowering in pain the next, Hopkins is utterly superb. Not to be out done, Goode is outstanding as Lewis, capturing his vulnerability and intellectual prowess with ease.
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A rarity in mainstream cinema, Freud’s Last Session is an exercise in intellectual sparring punctuated with soul gripping humanity perfectly embodied in the performances of Hopkins and Goode. One of 2024’s best films.