Let’s talk about sex. Screenwriter Christopher Hampton does so with arch detachment in A Dangerous Method, an artfully composed portrait of intellectual one-upmanship adapted from his 2002 stage play, The Talking Cure. Set in the early 20th century, David Cronenberg’s film explores the scholarly battle of wits between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his brilliant protégé, Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) — two great thinkers who furthered our knowledge about human behaviour and the control exerted by the subconscious.

Sexual desire coursed beneath the surface of the Canadian director’s early work, reaching a climax in the deeply divisive, auto-erotic Crash. The couplings here are clinical rather than erotic, sado-masochistic rather than salacious — a temporary salve to years of anguish and self-loathing. Hampton’s screenplay is dense and wordy, providing Fassbender, Keira Knightley and Mortensen with meaty roles as the three points of a self-destruction triangle that ultimately gives birth to psychoanalysis.

In the same way that Freud and Jung coolly observe their patients, seeking answers in awkward silences, the film holds a magnifying glass up to the characters and stares unflinchingly into their souls.

The film opens in 1904. A deeply disturbed 18-year-old woman called Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) is admitted to Jung’s psychiatric clinic in Zurich and provides a fascinating subject. Through conversations with Sabina, Jung delves into her emotional distress and he discovers that her relationship with an abusive father is at the root of her spasms.

“Whenever he hit us, afterwards, we had to kiss his hand,” she grimaces during one counselling session.

The Swiss psychiatrist seeks guidance from Freud, who presides over the academic establishment with arrogance, espousing his theories on the human condition and his “talking cure” technique. The two men galvanise a relationship of mutual respect and competition, challenging each other’s firmly held notions.

Freud asks Jung to treat psychologist Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), who embraces desire and encourages Jung to indulge pleasures forbidden by polite society. Consequently, Jung and Sabina kindle a violent, sexual affair that propagates her destructive cycle and jeopardises the Swiss psychiatrist’s marriage to his wife Emma (Sarah Gadon).

A Dangerous Method is clinical and emotionally cold, distinguished by the performances of the central trio, including an eye-catching turn from Knightley laden with twitches and nervous tics.

Man of the moment Fassbender largely keeps his britches on this time (after his starring role full-frontal Shame), while Mortensen oozes pomposity beneath a halo of cigar smoke.

Hampton’s screenplay is peppered with some smart one-liners (“Sometimes, you have to do something unforgivable to go on living”), providing Cronenberg with the sparks of eroticism that drive the various relationships to a sombre resolution.

Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) loses his beloved father Thomas (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, shattering the happy home of his mother Linda (Sandra Bullock) in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. When Oskar’s father was alive, they used to play a game which involved looking for clues in New York City. An old key found in a smashed vase sparks Oskar’s imagination and he becomes convinced that Thomas has left him a clue from beyond the grave. A late-night encounter with the mute, elderly man (Max von Sydow) who rents a room in his grandmother’s apartment provides Oskar with an unlikely accomplice for the search.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is anchored by a mesmerising performance from newcomer Horn, who is the emotional heart of the piece. Hanks is glimpsed in flashback and Bullock impresses in her few scenes, but von Sydow dominates all of his scenes, conveying heartbreaking emotion through his eyes and gestures. The resolution to Oskar’s search feels contrived, almost preposterous, but the excellent casting and flashes of Daldry’s directorial brio counterbalance our incredulity.