Freud's Last Session
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 22, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
15
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 10, 2024
Germain and Brown open up the stage play with flashbacks, which are not nearly as effective as the two guys talking. But as long as they’re talking, and they talk enough, “Freud’s Last Session” is very much worth seeing. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 13, 2024
Not a terribly profound movie, perhaps, but robustly performed and an interesting reminder of the dusty old debates on the point of being swept away by the great horror of the second world war. Read full review
60
The Daily BeastNick SchagerDec 21, 2023
A stately affair that’s never particularly intellectually incisive or revealing, and its stolid execution fails to transcend the material’s inherent staginess. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 1, 2023
Despite its thoughtful ruminations and supple performances, this period drama fails to produce the expected intellectual fireworks. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 1, 2023
So many movies are either mindless or completely disinterested with engaging the intellect of their audiences that Freud’s Last Session offers a welcome bit of brain stimulation — but does far less for the soul. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberNov 1, 2023
Even acknowledging and regretting the conceptual misjudgments that mar the film, there are moments to enjoy. The conversations between the doctor and the don remain stimulating, and the two central performances add to the electricity. Read full review
60
TheWrapKristen LopezNov 1, 2023
Freud’s Last Session will certainly find its fans, and the actors are all superlative. But the whole affair feels a bit too dense to enthrall and the script never dives deep enough into these characters’ psyche to tell us something new or particularly unique. Read full review
58
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 2, 2024
The film’s observations, as filtered through the duo, feel utterly simplistic, and gain gravity only by the enthusiasm in Goode and Hopkins’ performances. Read full review
50
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 11, 2024
Performances are, predictably, strong with the 85-year-old Hopkins, bouncing about like a bantam-weight fighter, and Good, in the more restrained role, calmly watching the phenomenon as much as responding to it, eventually wearing down his opponent with compassion. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleJan 4, 2024
The elements never quite cohere in “Freud’s Last Session.” The rhythm of conversation feels choppy and lacks the probing give and take that can electrify a two-hander. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 2, 2024
Viewers of “Session” may find it harder to take solace from (or to find entertainment in) this stagy jar of slightly pickled discord, directed by Matt Brown, based on the 2011 play by Mark St. Germain (itself inspired by Armand Nicholi’s 2002 book “The Question of God”). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleDec 22, 2023
The leads give it their all — Hopkins’ vinegary parrying is especially lively — but the overall takeaway is of historical puppets playing philosophical gotcha, when we yearn for three-dimensional humans filling up a room with their lives, learnings and flaws. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraJun 14, 2024
It’s not the fault of either star, but the half-baked script makes this an unsatisfyingly thin exploration of the weighty themes it seeks to cover. More intellectual cut-and-thrust and fewer flashbacks would have helped. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 13, 2024
Hopkins’ performance isn’t good, exactly, but it’s certainly interesting to watch, as the actor seems to swipe his lines of dialogue from the shelf in passing, as if playing a script version of Supermarket Sweep. Goode is restrained by comparison, but then the film does a lot of restraining on his behalf. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJan 17, 2024
Except for a potent scene in which Freud rages against Christianity’s conceptual embrace of “God’s plan” to explain why a supreme being would allow terrible things to happen, it’s a relatively bloodless tit-for-tat conversation that shoots sparks that rarely catch fire. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergDec 22, 2023
The look of Freud’s Last Session could make one doubt the presence of a cinematographer. Read full review
35
PolygonSiddhant AdlakhaJan 3, 2024
Nothing comes of anything either man says. It’s all noise — all passionless anger going in circles, captured by a camera that seems averse to lingering on the tremendous talents of Hopkins and Goode, who try their best to rescue Freud’s Last Session from itself. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJan 5, 2024
Tiresome digressions mixed in with philosophical banalities add up to a pointless, inert drama. Read full review
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