Freud’s Last Session | 2023 | PG-13 | – 5.5.3

Why is “Freud’s Last Session” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic material, some bloody/violent images, sexual material and smoking.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes two women kissing and caressing in bed, many discussions of human sexuality, a battlefield sequence with young men being killed with bloody wounds shown, an air raid siren blaring while people don gas masks and move toward an underground bunker, discussions of both world wars with Germany, many arguments, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Depiction of an imaginary encounter between Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) taking place in London on the eve of WWII as they debate the existence of God, faith, science, sex and their domestic circumstances. Freud would die shortly after and Lewis would go on to write “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Also with Jodi Balfour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Orla Brady, Liv Lisa Fries and Nina Kolomiitseva. Directed by Matt Brown. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in German without translation. [Running Time: 1:48]

Freud’s Last Session SEX/NUDITY 5

 – Two women are shown kissing and caressing in bed and we hear moaning; a man has a flashback to seeing the couple in bed and one of the women is his daughter. A woman wearing a nightgown that reveals cleavage invites a man to join her in bed; it is implied that they are involved in a physical relationship. A woman hugs a man and tells him that she doesn’t want him to go to a meeting.
► Several discussions center on human sexuality. A remark is made about someone masturbating. A man asks another man about his relationship with a woman and the second man becomes upset, refusing to discuss it (there’s an implication of impropriety). A young woman during a therapy session describes being chased by a knight and the knight kissing her and guiding her hand to touch him on the chest and groin; her therapist is her father, he stops her and they argue.
► Several statues are seen with bare buttocks and partial bare breasts.

Freud’s Last Session VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A battlefield sequence shows soldiers running through muddy fields as bombs fall near them, they take cover in mud-filled foxholes and then run out across the field as they are fired upon and are struck a few times; one young man is struck and killed (we see him motionless with mud and blood on his face), and another has a bloody wound on his chest from shrapnel, he is struck again and thrown into a hole, where another man lies dead with a bloody bullet hole in his forehead; the young man screams for help.
► A young man in a surgery is shown with an open wound in his leg as medical personnel remove shrapnel; we hear the young man moaning and see the bloody tissue. A man in a great deal of pain asks another man to help him remove a prosthetic from his mouth; the man reaches into the other man’s mouth and pulls as blood pours out and we see a metal prosthetic with teeth attached to it come out of his mouth as he moans in pain. We understand that a man has cancer of the jaw and uses a prosthetic in his mouth that seems very painful; he holds his hand against his face and uses a handkerchief a few times that we see stained with blood. A man imagines or flashes back to being in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask; we then see him without the mask and blood drips from his mouth.
► Armed Nazi soldiers enter a man’s home asking for him and his daughter is taken away; the man gives her a cyanide capsule before she leaves to use if need arises and we see her seated in a dark cell, as we hear someone being shot by a firing squad outside. Sirens sound and people scramble to put gas masks on while moving to an underground cellar in a church anticipating a bombing; one man has a panic attack while walking through a dark hallway and we later understand that it was a false alarm.
► A man at a train station sees women putting their children on trains to send them away from the potential of bombing London by Germany. Sandbags are piled around buildings in preparation for bombings. A few flashbacks show young boys walking alone through forests. A man angrily sends a woman away after his son genuflects during a Jewish prayer.
► We hear Adolf Hitler’s voice talking about the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe,” and crowds cheer and chant. A man says, “They butcher their children.” We hear that Germany invaded Poland and destroyed their air force, and later hear that Slovakian troops have joined Germany. A man says to expect and prepare for the worst. Two men talk about faith and Christianity throughout the movie. We hear an announcement on the radio that England is at war with Germany. A woman is reprimanded for leaving her lecture before it is completed in order to get home to her ailing father. Two men argue about the adult daughter of one of the men and he sends the other man away angrily. A young woman pleads with her father telling him, “I need you. I need your help.” A man asks another man about his relationship with his father and makes a comment about whether he wanted to kill him. We hear that a man’s mother died when he was young and his father sent him away to boarding school when he was 9 years old. A man says that something was as funny as a hanging. A man talks about the death of his daughter from Spanish influenza and of his grandson from tuberculosis. A man says that he and his father made their peace before the father died.
► We see a snake slithering around a statue in a man’s flashback or hallucination. A dog urinates on a post (we do not see the stream).

Freud’s Last Session LANGUAGE 3

 – 7 sexual references, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (Christian apologist, insanity, bombastic, vain, imbecile, ludicrous dream, madness, hypocrites, passionate disbeliever, insidious lie, bellicose, flawed, the sex doctor, ridiculous, clumsy, coward, selfish, reformed alcoholic, bogeyman, stupidity, monster, poor wretched lunatics, bitter disappointment, fool), exclamations (bully for you, bloody), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. there is a God, Pagan myths, God’s mysterious ways, a man talks about church propaganda, concept of God, oh God, thank God, it is God’s plan, caught between God and Satan, two men talk about faith and Christianity throughout the movie). | profanity glossary |

Freud’s Last Session SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman says that a doctor will be arriving with a man’s morphine to treat his pain. A man drinks whiskey and squirts morphine in a glass before drinking it, and two men drink whiskey during a meeting. A man smokes cigarettes in a few scenes, and a man smokes a cigar in a few scenes.

Freud’s Last Session DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Psychoanalysis, cancer, morphine for pain, ability to change your mind, habit, secrets, suicide, superstition, miracles, Pagan myths, trauma, death of a parent, obsession, fantasy, doubt, dreams, reality, Christianity, Atheism, good and evil, pain and suffering, castration complex, truth, duty, compulsion, narcissism, fear, homosexuality, hate, burning books, family tragedy, monsters, child psychoanalysis, skepticism, memories from our childhood, Spanish influenza, home, sadomasochism.

Freud’s Last Session MESSAGE

 – Death is as unfair as life.