Freud’s Last Session imagines the philosophical debate of a lifetime — then flops

polygon.com:

Few works of historical fiction have been so imaginative in premise, yet so dull and lackluster in execution. Freud’s Last Session puts a powerhouse pair of actors, Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, in the shoes of two renowned real-life figures, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, as they engage in theological debate. But the resultant conversation, based on the play of the same name by Mark St. Germain (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Matthew Brown), would be laughed out of a high school philosophy club. Despite the caliber of its performers — especially Hopkins, who’s in the most fascinating phase of his career with works like The Father and One Life — Brown’s film is an utter dud.

Unpleasant and unengaging right out the gate, the movie (like the play, and the book on which it’s based) imagines a fictitious encounter between psychoanalytical giant Freud (Hopkins) and author and theologian Lewis (Goode), who would go on to write The Chronicles of Narnia. Their conversation, courtesy of an invite by Freud, unfolds on the day of Britain’s entry into World War II, a background that ought to imbue their debate with a sense of ominous urgency, but only serves to create a brief detour to a bomb shelter near Freud’s London home. Having left Nazi-controlled Austria, the curmudgeonly analyst lives with his daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) — a professor herself — and concocts excuses not to spend time with her girlfriend, Dorothy Burlingham (Jodi Balfour), though he won’t admit his discomfort with their relationship.

The film initially has the makings of an intriguing drama, about a paradoxical figure whose controversial work many considered sexually revolutionary, but who can’t get past his own hang-ups. But the idea is