Passage à l'acte

Old film that aged okay. We're not sure what to think of the psycho visiting the psy until all unravel swiftly. It is another take on psychopathy before it became TV fodder.

This film had a good idea. The context of the relation between mental health doctor and his patients....mixt with suspense and drama.

I think the execution however was poor...not so much on the side of Daniel Auteil...but on the side of the patient. Something was missing in order for us to really understand and connect with the back story. It is as if the writer hid too much for us to really connect with some of the crucial players of the movie...in an attempt to not reveal too much of the ending. But this camouflaged information makes us not care about the story to begin with.

'Death in Therapy' is a rather engaging thriller in which a psychoanalyst, Dr Riviere, is drawn into an uncertain world of danger and violence as he attempts to determine whether his patient, Berg, is telling the truth when he announces in therapy that he murdered his wife and got away with it.

The narrative belies an understanding that the "patient" is not merely a passive object of analysis, but an actively engaged subject, and in the process of demonstrating the amount of control that Berg is able to exert over his analyst 'Death in Therapy' also makes some pointed observations with regards to the largely classificatory nature of psychiatry and its "professional detachment". To some extent, this point is underlined by Berg himself; in contrast, Riviere's other patients are seen as dull, neurotic, even comedic for Riviere.

An interesting film which raises many pertinent questions.