They had me at Anthony Hopkins. That’s all it took to grab my interest. Throw in that he’s playing Sigmund Freud opposite of Matthew Goode as C.S. Lewis and I’m utterly captivated by the possibilities. It has been said that revered neurologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud met with a young, unnamed Oxford don shortly before his death. Was it C.S. Lewis? We will never know. The new film “Freud’s Last Session” poses the question “What if?”.

Based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, “Freud’s Last Session” sees director Matthew Brown pondering a fictional meeting between the two intellectual minds. It couldn’t be better cast, with both Hopkins and Goode slipping right into the skins of their characters and creating a sparkling chemistry. When the two are together the film makes for a mesmerizing study. Unfortunately there are a few too many well-meaning distractions that keep it from fully forming into the brilliant two-hander it could have been.

On September 3, 1939, only two days after Adolph Hitler’s German forces invaded Poland, a sickly Sigmund Freud sits in his London flat awaiting a special visitor. He has invited Oxford professor and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis to pay him a visit. Freud has taken issue with Lewis’ latest book, The Pilgrim’s Regress and is surprised that the young author agreed to come discuss his work. As Lewis makes his way to Freud’s home we get a glimpse of a London in chaos, as Hitler’s actions have put them on the precipice of a Second World War. That inevitability looms over much of the movie.

After some light greetings, Freud and Lewis begin to feel each other out, philosophizing about current events and sharing stories from their childhoods. Written by Brown and St. Germain, the story uses these early conversations and a few brief and well incorporated flashbacks to explore the two men’s backstories. We learn of Lewis’ time in the war and the PTSD that came from it. We hear Freud lamenting his beloved Vienna which he was forced to flee after the Nazi occupation.

But soon their discussions turns to debate as they get to the reasons for their meeting. The pair begin by challenging each other’s dramatically different worldviews, eventually arriving at their key point of disagreement – the existence of God. Freud denies God exists; Lewis begs to differ. The conversations that spring from it are fascinating. Brown and St. Germain put Lewis and Freud on equal footing, highlighting the strengths of their cases as well as their flaws as human beings. Those two elements factor into their positions in a number of intriguing ways.

Much less effective is the side story involving Freud’s daughter, Anna (Liv Lisa Fries). It’s an element of the story that never comes together as the movie hopes and intends. And it’s too thinly sketched to be anything more than an unneeded diversion. Unfortunately Anna’s scenes devour too much of the running time and they repeatedly pull us away from the much more interesting Freud vs. Lewis parley.

Over time the distractions grow frustrating and they ultimately hinder “Freud’s Last Session” from being the thought-provoking drama it almost is. Much of what we get is truly great material and the performances from Hopkins and Goode are exceptional. The interactions between their characters range from funny to heartbreaking to profound. Brown never takes sides and shows respect to both men, allowing them to make their cases and defend their positions. That’s when the movie is at its very best. “Freud’s Last Session” is out now in select theaters.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS