Fassbender was excellent. Mortensen was good if one-note. I thought Knightley's performance was completely miscalculated - I appreciate that she was trying to stretch herself but to me she came across as amateurish and distracting.

@rudely_murray said:

I thought Knightley's performance was completely miscalculated - I appreciate that she was trying to stretch herself but to me she came across as amateurish and distracting.

Okay so I wasn't the only one who thought that. I saw this film when it first hit home video but didn't remember a lot about it other than Knightley's odd acting and jaw jutting out while she's being spanked. Her accent was kind of weird and she constantly has that psychotic look in her eyes, but her character was basically a crazy woman so I guess that kinda fit.

I rewatched the film for the first time since 2012 and the one thing I will say is that this has to be Cronenberg's best looking film. The shots in this are so crisp and vibrant and beautiful. This has to be Cronenberg's most "normal" movie even though it's about sexual psycho analysis and spankings.