Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode and Liv Lisa Fries
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Runtime: 109 mins. Reviewed in Apr 2024
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This fictional drama film shows CS Lewis debating the existence of God with Sigmund Freud.
This American-British film is based on a stage play of the same name by Mark St Germain which itself is based on the 2003 book, The Question of God, by Armand Nicholi. In the film, a fictional meeting occurs between Irish-born author, literary scholar and Anglican lay-theologian, CS Lewis, and Austrian neurologist, psychologist, and founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud – two days after the start of WWII.
In the movie, Freud vehemently opposes Lewis’ rejection of his atheism in favour of Christianity, and invites Lewis to debate the existence of God. Together they raise issues 20th century, and the film has them doing battle in an imagined debate.
Hopkins brilliantly depicts a dying Freud. Goode in more laid-back style insightfully plays Lewis, and Fries sensitively plays Freud’s loving daughter, Anna. Freud died by suicide in 1939 at age 83, with oral cancer that he had for many years, and which caused him severe pain; Lewis died in 1963, aged 64, by kidney failure. Their interaction in the film targets diverse issues ranging from religious belief to war trauma and mortality, and focuses heavily on the nature of the relationships both had with other people. Lewis converted to Christianity in 1931. The film hints that Freud may have interacted with Lewis in the last days of his life, and his therapeutic office showing the famous couch he used for his psychoanalytic sessions is depicted with affection.
Hopkins and Goode inhabit their characters convincingly. Sexuality to Freud is the fount of all happiness, while Lewis argues it is one of many pleasures that God may give. The film leaves the viewer, not with resolution of its issues, but with admiration that stimulating mental jousting has occurred between two great minds. Some (but not all) of the film’s many flashbacks distract from what is essentially a two-character duelling performance. The psychological and thematic impact of the interactions between Freud, Lewis and Freud’s daughter, Anna are depicted powerfully throughout.
In the dialogue between Freud and Lewis, this complex film centres speculatively on opposing points of view. In the film, Freud and Lewis don’t conclude the debate, or choose to agree with each other, but share their emotional feelings and thoughts while showing respect for each other’s intellect. There are so many compelling moments in this film, one looks for more of them, given the overall intensity of the debate, and the significance of the issues at stake.
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