This wound up on Netflix, after previously having a VOD run. I didn’t see audio description for this when i wanted to rent it, and Netflix didn’t pick up a track for it. However, I’m a fan of Anthony Hopkins, and I really thought this film would be just a long conversation between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. It’s not. You actually need the audio description.

While the movie does imagine what a conversation would be like between Freud (played by Anthony Hopkins) and Lewis (played by Matthew Goode), as they debate faith and the human condition at the onset of World War II, in many ways it is a traditional historical biopic on Freud, just not one that looks at the totality of one’s life, but rather one that looks at a specific period of time in that famous life. For example, Hyde Park On The Hudson works as a biopic of sorts for FDR, but also isn’t, because it is this time contained story.

Freud’s Last Session breaks the monotony of the conversation by throwing in flashbacks, mostly for Freud, but also for Lewis. We also happen to be at Freud’s home for the majority of the film, so it feels like he’s the centric character. The truth though is that this conversation never happened, and is just a fancy and fun way to debate these existential concepts using two well known figures, with Freud being known for tackling the concept of how our brains work, and Lewis known for his commitment to faith, which is challenged by the death of his wife. Of course, putting this right at the start of World War II, where Freud is also a Jewish refugee fleeing Nazi Germany is just one more thing for this film to debate.

The film uses flashbacks to shape these men, but in a way it does always feel one-sided. Not only is this film called Freud’s Last session, but the thing takes place in his home. It is almost like the film never wants to give real credence to anything Lewis ever has to say, which kind of makes you wonder why bother at all. Since this conversation never happened, anyone could be in this room, and in this format, Lewis is wasted.

Hopkins is always good, so it becomes hard to say that this is one of his best performances, because I could easily list ten more I liked more than this. He’s just a tremendous actor, and he’s just going through the motions, now an elder statesman type playing elder statesmen types. Just look at his other recent biopic, One Life. He’s doing nearly the same thing, playing a man near death reminiscing on life. Gone are the days when we took a risk on Hopkins, and now he’s just always going to be historical figures who are about to die.

There’s so much more to this than just a conversation, including a war sequence as part of Lewis’s backstory, so i can’t recommend this to blind audiences, because the time jumps, and location changes make this harder than I expected. I was hoping this would be closer to something like mass, which trusted on its crackling script to just leave people in a room and let them talk. The best writers can pull that off. I’m guessing they didn’t feel like they fell into that group. Mostly, this is a serviceable film that just feels like it is unnecessary.

Final Grade: unwatchable

Projected Final Grade With Audio Description: C, C+, B-, B