The film stars Matthew Goode as C.S Lewis and Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud.
The Guardian: *** “There is no great meeting of minds here, and in fact the drama would be insufferable were it not triangulated by the figure of Anna Freud (sharply played by Liv Lisa Fries), bullied and oppressed by her father, frantically running through the rain to deliver the medicine he has demanded quite unaware that the selfish old brute had quite forgotten he had asked for it. Not a terribly profound movie, perhaps, but robustly performed and an interesting reminder of the dusty old debates on the point of being swept away by the great horror of the second world war.”
Empire: ** “It’s not the fault of either star, but the half-baked script makes this an unsatisfyingly thin exploration of the weighty themes it seeks to cover. More intellectual cut-and-thrust and fewer flashbacks would have helped.”
The Telegraph: ** “Where might some dramatic intrigue have stemmed from? A crisper hint of deathbed doubt in Freud, perhaps – or a meatier reckoning with the possible unconscious roots of Lewis’s Narnia tales. Instead, though, we get an engineered dead heat, less alive to the power of its ideas than their awards-baity provenance. For a few, that may be enough – but with apologies to Freud himself, sometimes a dud is just a dud.”
The Spectator: “Freud’s Last Session stars Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode and is a work of speculative fiction asking what would have happened if Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis had met to debate the existence of God. What if two of the greatest minds of the 20th century had the chance to thrash it out? Thrash it out they do but, alas, they cannot thrash any life into this film. If you are planning to see it at the cinema, a few espressos beforehand may not go amiss.”
iNews: ** ” A meeting between Freud and CS Lewis should crackle with energy – but in Matthew Brown’s film it merely fizzles.”
The Jewish Chronicle: *** “Brown’s film however, absorbing though it is, is much more concerned in reinforcing our impressions of these giants. It makes for an interesting encounter rather than a gripping one.”
Variety: “So many movies are either mindless or completely disinterested with engaging the intellect of their audiences that “Freud’s Last Session” offers a welcome bit of brain stimulation — but does far less for the soul. The original play was St. Germain’s attempt to synthesize ideas from a series of Harvard lectures on the two thinkers (amusingly enough, between this and 1993’s superior “Shadowlands,” Hopkins has now played both men at different points in his career). Still, it feels unfair to pit them against one another, and the movie doesn’t dare put anything too incendiary into either of their mouths — beyond a lit cigar, of course.”
Freud’s Last Session is out now in cinemas.