A fictional meeting between geniuses
Review of "Freud's Last Session."
Freud’s last session
Directed by Matt Brown
Sony Pictures Classics, 2023.
Freud’s Last Session is an imagined conversation between the psychologist Sigmund Freud and the author/theologian C. S. Lewis. The film uses the interaction to bring the work of these two men into a space where they comment on and critique one another. There is, of course, discussion on the limitations of religion and the problem of pain. In general, the film seems to side with Lewis while pointing out some Freudian insights into how Lewis’s character was shaped by life experiences.
The contrast between the two men’s perspectives is shown in how they encounter the mysteriousness of forests in their respective childhoods. For Freud the woods are a dark and foreboding place where one needs to protect oneself from potential dangers. For Lewis, the woods are suffused with light, life and wonder despite the dangers and difficulties. At some points in the film, it is hard to see these men as anything more than strawmen representations of their own and each other’s ideas. Anthony Hopkins does an especially admirable job of portraying Freud as a man in pain near the end of his life, yet neither character feels completely human. Lewis’s life is rooted in realism and most of Freud’s life is rendered in jarring dream sequences, thick with metaphor and somewhat obtuse imagery.
The film’s most sympathetic and fleshed out character is Freud’s daughter, Anna. She isn’t merely a mouthpiece for psychology, theology or philosophy – she is also a daughter struggling to negotiate a codependent relationship with her controlling and ailing father. A main tension is her desire for her father to acknowledge and accept her lesbian relationship with a colleague. We see Anna both in the context of her paternal relationship and her professional role as a psychoanalyst. Freud and Lewis, in comparison, feel somewhat flat by only being presented as foils to each other.
For anyone who enjoys the ride of a philosophical and psychological thought experiment this film is well worth a watch. However, the growth and dramatic arc of the main characters ultimately feels unfulfilling because the central encounter almost certainly did not occur.
