Freud's Last Session (12A)

Anthony Hopkins continues his strong, late-career

run of films in Matthew Brown’s thought-provoking

drama.

It’s a few days after the start of World War II. Sigmund

Freud is in his London chambers locked in a goodnatured

verbal duel with author C.S. Lewis (Matthew

Goode) over why he insists on the existence of God.

Based on the play by Mark St. Germain, who co-wrote

with director Brown, the collision of ideas produces

verbal fireworks as Freud laments his cancer

diagnosis in this fictitious encounter.

Everything takes place with the impending war as a

backdrop, with grim radio news updates punctuating

the visit and offering context for some of the

discussion. The two men’s outwardly polite argument

is augmented by cutaway scenes which illustrate or

explain what they are discussing or provide insight

into the mind or thoughts of a character.

At it’s heart are two exquisite performances. Hopkins’

fictionalised Freud is a powerful, multi-level portrait

that reveals both Freud’s genius and his many human

failings. Goode as Lewis gives a more restrained

performance but a moving and effective one. An

imaginative theoretical chess-match between two of

the greatest minds of the 20th century.