Yesterday, news dropped of the Venice Film Festival’s opening film; now, with the first look at David Cronenberg’s Lido-bound latest (courtesy of Empire), the autumn festival season is starting to feel alarmingly close. Given the hot cast and the highbrow material, many have been pegging this as a likely Oscar player, despite the fact that Cronenberg (even in period dress) has never caught the Academy’s fancy. My personal hope is that the film is as Oscar-unfriendly as possible — after two accomplished but straightforward genre spins, I’d love to see the director tap into his kinky side again. As is my usual practice these days, I’m not watching the trailer, so I’ll just have to wait and see. You, however, can share your thoughts below. Click the image below to take a look or watch an embed after the jump.
Comments
31 responses to “‘A Dangerous Method’ UK trailer”
This looks quite intriguing. I’m only hoping that Keira Knightly isn’t the weak link in the cast.
She looks like the film’s best shot at an awards play, frankly. (Not a value judgment on the film, mind you — it looks intriguing.)
The trailer is good. I’m very intrigued. I hope it’s great. To me, Knightley’s role definitely looks “baity”. That said, I don’t think she looked particularly great (while being baity) in the trailer.
I’d love for the Academy to start getting in the mind frame that quality beats baity aspects. This is why I’m scratching my head when people think The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is gonna go far. Movies certainly aren’t about limitations.
I hope this taps into Cronenberg’s weirder style as well though History of Violence and Eastern Promises had moments of that.
well guy, this looks pretty academy un-friendly, youll be pleased. looks like it could go either way, quality wise. color me intrigued
Keeping my fingers crossed that this is Mortensen’s year. And as James said looking forward to Cronenberg’s darker elements to make a play this winter.
I don’t really get the “weak link” idea in relation to Knightley; she’s already been nominated for an Oscar.
Unrelatedly, I wasn’t aware she was going to be doing an accent in this film; those can be a crapshoot in terms of acting (for all the jokes about Sean Connery, moviegoers tend on the whole to prefer when actors sound like themselves).
One of my most anticipated films of the year. I hope they campaign Knightley as lead and not supporting–she certainly appears to be the former here.
I think she appears to be the latter.
(And maybe SPC will learn from last year’s mistakes, vis a vis Lesley Manville.)
That still stings. Re-watched ‘Another Year’ a few weeks ago. She was so freaking good.
I already see Knightley getting a nod for Supporting…
Top-billing aside, Knightley does look more supporting than lead and campaigning that way would be the smartest move, IMO.
Robin Williams was also top-billed for Good Will Hunting (a little bit of trivia)
Billing frequently doesn’t mean a whole lot, particularly when big stars are involved; Marlon Brando got top billing for “Superman” and he’s in it for, what, ten minutes?
Looks good. Not great, but good. Looked a bit like Cronenbergs “Crash” as a period piece.
Regarding the lead/supporting with Keira: It seems SO odd that she is billed first. Is it because it’s the UK trailer? That’s the only thing that makes sense, unless she IS the true lead of the story (in spite of not being the complete focus of the trailer).
How can she be billed BEFORE Mortensen, even considering all reasons for it? It MUST be the UK thing.
Anyways, I think it’s sad that people always make fun of her talent. After Depp she was the best thing about the first Pirates film – and she was only 17. She was great in so many films, and she NAILED the old fashion language in Pride & Prejudice. I think she has proven herself again and again to be a fearless actress and has the talent to back it up. In which film do people think she’s bad in since so many people don’t take her seriously?
“Looks good. Not great, but good. Looked a bit like Cronenbergs “Crash” as a period piece.”
Agreed.
Not impressed. I love Cronenberg but this looks melodramatic and a bit flimsy to me. Also Keira can be good but she doesn’t look particularly crazy here. Her performance — what you can see of it from the trailer — simply looks like overacting. Plus the spanking — hopefully in context it will seem disturbing, erotic or both but in the trailer it is laughable.
You guys are overreacting. No trailer will show the Cronenbergian parts of his films, because they are so unsettling, disturbing, etc. I’m sure that at least a part will involve body horror as always, you can expect seeing Keira naked with a lot of gruesome scars all over her body
On Keira, I should take back a bit of what I said earlier.
I DO think she actually looks good in this trailer; and not over-the-top. My only hesitation is with her accent.
And I think she is talented.
It looks like Fassbender is doing the more straightforward acting here while Knightley and Mortensen get the more flashy roles to play around with. I do seriously wonder what Fassbender’s chances are, he clearly looks the lead here, and the more dominant one, which means a supporting campaign would be out of the question, but if Viggo (being the bigger name) has enough of a leading role, and delivers on it (which I suspect from that first glimpse he very much will), he would make a much easier awards play. He is seen by many (including myself) as being overdue. I just hope that he and Fassbender don’t just cancel eachother out.
Also, I suspect that this film will be controversial very much in the same way as “Kinsey”.
The Great Dane, at least for me I count three performances I really dislike for Knightley:
1. The Duchess: Very wooden and plain. Fiennes and Atwell rounds circles around her
2. Never Let Me Go: Cringeworthy performance. Especially in those especific scenes which said: Look at me, i’m childish!
3. The Jacket: Awful American accent and plain.
Also, her performance in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 wasn’t exactly very inspired enough, but I guess is part blame of the script. Even in “Atonement” she was the weak link after a second view – An attemp of Celia Johnson’s Brief Encounter (Too mannerism).
Around the trailer, I didn’t like it.
Good points:
-Viggo Mortensen’s scenes
-Art Direction
Bad points:
-Editing
-Music of the trailer.
Like I said before, I don’t like Knightley, but she surprised me greatly in “Last Night”. After I saw the trailer… the best part of that, she’s very actressing and showy enough for Oscar consideration in supporting category (But like jj1 said, she doesn’t look exactly too great)
I’m sure that at least a part will involve body horror as always
As always? Depends how loose your definition of body horror is, I suppose.
Xavi, I’m interested to know what you mean by “plain” in your dismissal of certain Keira Knightley performances. Do you mean that the performance style is too unadorned or uninflected for your liking, or are you merely referring to her physical appearance? If the former, I’d disagree, since I think she tends to err toward the mannered side of things. If the latter, putting aside the fact that many would disagree, does that seem a fair consideration in evaluating her work? Not criticising, just curious.
Count me in.
Cronenberg? Check.
Michael Sexy Jaw Line Fassbender? Check.
Batshit crazy Keira Knightley WITH a Russian accent? Check.
Count me in!
I am surprised that Keira is the first name listed at the end of the trailer.
Yes, plain it’s the wrong word, but I explain that:
For The Duchess: I remember especially a scene when she confronted her husband for his infidelity and when I saw it I think: Oh, she looks like a high school performer in a play; especially when Fiennes and his restrained but effective performance. She was so uncovincing.
For “the Jacket”, I understand the film wasn’t exactly a good option for acting showcase, but with that attempt of accent and erratic performance.
I’m very much looking forward to this. Seems like a fascinating story. I have concerns about Knightly also, but hopefully she’ll surprise me. I’ll see anything by Cronenberg, so I’m there.
I agree with the criticsms of knightley’s earlier work but i think people forget that she is only 26 and with a filmography that spans at least 10 years now. Her abilities as an actress have developed alot within those years. I saw Last Night as well and after being unimpressed with her earlier work (the Duchess, for example) its evident that she is devloping alot. Does she have natural talent like Mulligan? Not likely. Trained/honed up talent from both film and theatre? Absolutely. But yeah, she’s too mannered in her approach to ever be completely naturalistic, and its very evident when she does period pieces. I have the same problem with Blanchett as well.
Riz, excellent point. Usually I like Blanchett (But I don’t understand how she got that nom for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, beside for her name; even with Angelina Jolie, Tang Wei and Anamaria Marinca in contention; or I dislike -Actually, I despise the film- her villain character in the Last Indiana Jones film), but with a weak direction she suffered that.
I read the play in the last few days. Let me tell is a dull play and dry for the subject matter (Even in moments came to be boring). After read I believe another actress would be better for Sabina. A young Tilda Swinton would be perfect, but instead Eva Green, Hayley Atwell or Emilie Dequenne would be excellent options. The image of Sabina Spielrein in the play and then the trailer didn’t give me a lot of hopes for Knightley (Too bad, because “Last Night” was a revelation). Cronenberg is an auteur, but his last attemp of adaptation from a play (M. Butterfly) wasn’t exactly a routnd success. We’ll see in Venice
I would love to see Keira in this lead.