Angelus News | January 12, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 1

NOW PLAYING FREUD’S LAST SESSION
LEAVING THE
‘GOD QUESTION’ OPEN
An imaginary conversation between an unlikely
pair of 20th-century thinkers may have made for
the smartest film of 2023.
BY STEFANO REBEGGIANI
Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud and Matthew
Goode as C.S. Lewis star in a scene from
the movie “Freud’s Last Session.” | OSV NEWS/
SABRINA LANTOS, COURTESY SONY PICTURES
CLASSICS
In 1939, on the eve of World War II,
a Jewish psychiatrist named Sigmund
Freud moved to London to escape
the Nazi persecution in his native
Vienna. Three weeks before his death,
the famed inventor of psychoanalysis
met with an unidentified Oxford professor
in his apartment and conversed with
him at length. To this day, we still do
not know the identity of his visitor.
American playwright Mark St.
Germain wrote a play imagining that
the professor was C.S. Lewis –– the
famous scholar, philosopher, Christian
apologist, and author of “The Chronicles
of Narnia.” The script has been
adapted for the new feature “Freud’s
Last Session,” which opened in theaters
Dec. 22.
The most pressing topic in this fictional
chat is, of course, the existence
of God.
In the film, Lewis has recently
returned to Christianity under the
influence of his friend J.R.R. Tolkien,
while Freud has emerged as one of
society’s most ardent atheists, claiming
that religion is a figment of people’s
imagination, a projection of their desire
for protection and guidance, and a
reflection of their relationship with
their fathers.
The conversation is set against a dramatic
backdrop: London is preparing
for airstrikes, trains full of children are
being evacuated. Meanwhile, Freud
is terminally ill with cancer and has
already given his doctor instructions for
his eventual euthanasia.
In the hands of lesser talent, this
project could easily have been a
disaster. But fortunately for us, the great
Anthony Hopkins doesn’t try to give us
an impression of Freud — his Freud is
a man, not a mask. Matthew Goode’s
elegant, sharp portrayal of Lewis is just
as effective at bringing out the humanity
of his character (ironically, Hopkins
played Lewis 30 years ago in the classic
film “Shadowlands”).
The film’s premise is attractive but
28 • ANGELUS • January 12, 2024