Madness in the method as pair embark on a destructive cycle

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Thursday, February 09, 2012
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Leicester Mercury

Adapted by screenwriter Christopher Hampton from his own 2002 stage play The Talking Cure, A Dangerous Method explores the battle of intellect and wit between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his brilliant protege, Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), in the early 20th century.

At the time, Freud presides over the academic establishment with arrogance, espousing his theories on psychoanalysis. Jung's theoretical heresies would eventually set him at odds with the discipline's founder.

A deeply disturbed 18-year-old woman called Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is admitted to Jung's psychiatric clinic in Zurich and provides a fascinating subject.

But as they spend more time together, Jung and Sabina engage in violent, sado-masochistic sex that propagates the destructive cycle of domination, and jeopardises the Swiss psychiatrist's marriage to his wife Emma (Sarah Gadon).

The first chapter of George Lucas's space opera returns to cinemas in eye-popping 3D .

The peace-loving planet of Naboo is under attack from a greedy Trade Federation.

The planet's ruler Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) flees for her life, accompanied by wise Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), and a young boy called Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd).

The Phantom Menace certainly looks like Star Wars and sounds like Star Wars, but somehow it doesn't feel like Star Wars.

The tension, the excitement, the gentle humour are all gone, sucked into some great screenplay black hole.

It's surprising how far short the film falls on delivering at least a fun and entertaining cinema ride.

And the less said about Jar Jar Binks, the better.

A 70th anniversary re-release of Michael Curtiz's brilliant wartime romance. Humphrey Bogart stars as American expatriate Rick Blaine, who runs a cafe in the centre of town, where Europeans often come to obtain exit visas to escape the Nazis.

When old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband, resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), turn up in Casablanca, Rick faces an agonising moral dilemma: help the woman he loves and lose her forever, or betray her husband to the Germans.

It's on next week, from Monday to Thursday, at Phoenix Square in Leicester.

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