AFI Film Festival Debuts Instant Classic 'Freud's Last Session'

Anthony Hopkins is making a play for the Oscars this year in One Life, where he plays real-life "British Schindler" Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved the lives of 669 Jewish children during World War II. It's perfect Oscar bait — real-life hero, biopic, period piece, tear-jerker, war drama. But current events have a way of accidentally derailing even the most foolproof schemes, and it's always good to have a backup plan. Lucky for Hopkins, he has a second, far less controversial Best Actor performance in his back pocket in the historical fiction two-hander Freud's Last Session.

The film is essentially a filmed version of the 2009 stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain (Becoming Dr. Ruth). St. Germain's play is adapted from Armand Nicholi's 2002 novel The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life. I feel compelled to note this is the second adaptation; PBS' WGBH did a four-part series in 2004 where Peter Eyre (The Remains of the Day) and Simon Jones (The Gilded Age) starred as Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. That one is sadly lost to history and the collapse of the DVD market. Freud's Last Session, on the other hand, should not be.

Hopkins plays the titular doctor and co-stars alongside Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey), who plays the famous creator of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. There are a few token appearances outside of their discussions in Freud's office, including a bonus Stephen Campbell Moore (The Confessions of Frannie Langton) going ham as Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien. But most of the film focuses on the conversations between these two great minds as they debate the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.