Dir/Wri: Matthew Brown | Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode | US Drama
Sigmund Freud and C S Lewis debate the existence of God in this provocative imagined drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, and based on a play by Mark St Germain that became a hit off Broadway.
When Hopkins played the English theologian and writer in Shadowlands he reduced audiences to tears with his earnest attempt to court Debra Winger’s dying writer Joy Gresham. In Matt Brown’s two-gander Matthew Goode is dapper and indulgent as C S Lewis and Hopkins, his sparring partner, is spiky and reticent in his final years as the legendary shrink.
The American director and writer collaborates with the play’s writer decide to spice things up by incorporating flash back episodes of Lewis’ life in the trenches and this often derails the already engaging exchange of informed views, detracting from the film’s natural dramatic thrust. Sometimes linear narratives work best, and that is arguably the case here. On the other hand, the writers’ decision to probe Freud’s backstory with his daughter Anna adds an informative touch in an intelligent foray into the young woman’s Electra complex: Interestingly the theory belonged to his Swiss colleague Carl Jung. @MeredithTaylor
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