Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a fly on the wall when two famous historical figures were to meet? Freud’s Last Session imagined a time when acclaimed Austrian neurologist/father of psychoanalysis Dr. Sigmund Freud invited an Oxford fellow and recent born-again Christian C.S. Lewis for a psychological/theological debate. The film is set in the Fall of 1939 as Britain stands on the brink of WWII, two days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

The success of films that primarily consist of verbal sparring between two people, a la My Dinner With Andre, hinges on the pair of actors’ talent and screen presence. With Sir Anthony Hopkins as Freud and Matthew Goode as Lewis, this film definitely has that, but it also proves that they can only do so much with the material given.

Hopkins is in curmudgeon mode as the 83-year-old Freud has been suffering from untreatable mouth cancer for six years, under the care of her lesbian daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries). Meanwhile, the 40-something Lewis is shown as more reactive to Freud’s constant prodding. At this point, Lewis is years away from his influential works, before he wrote the Narnia books and became the revered Christian apologist he’s known today (that Hopkins actually portrayed in Shadowlands in 1993). Given the 40-year gap, his reverence and politeness make sense, though it’s never clear as to why Freud invited him in the first place.

Writer/director Matt Brown adapted Mark St. Germain’s play of the same name, and while cinematic adaptations can offer broader perspectives that the stage can’t, such as backstory/flashbacks, it doesn’t always benefit the story. While the backstory can be intriguing, such as Lewis’ war experiences that undoubtedly shape his worldview, intercutting those scenes proves to be quite distracting and slows the film down.

The filmmaker also felt compelled, to include Anna’s conflict with her girlfriend that complicates her relationship with her father. If representation is the reason for that, then it’s to the detriment of the central plot. I personally would’ve loved to see more meaty conversations about humanity’s most important moral argument from two world-renowned thinkers.

The pairing of Hopkins and Goode is what drew me, as I love both actors’ work, but even they can’t elevate a flat, uninspired script. I appreciate the attempts to connect their belief in God, or lack thereof in Freud’s case, to their personal and relational struggles, but it feels very surface-level. There are moments of fascinating tension, such as when Freud allows Lewis to touch the prosthetics in his mouth, after saying earlier that only his doctors could do that.

In the end, both Freud and Lewis stay in their own lane, so to speak. As a believer, I don’t think faith and science are mutually exclusive, hence this is a fascinating subject for me. I just wish there were more of these profound moments to make the film more memorable than it is. Perhaps it’s best to leave it as a stage adaptation.

Have you seen Freud’s Last Session? I’d love to hear what you think!

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