Venice film festival 2011: Keira Knightley uses A Dangerous Method to woo Venice – in pictures

Shady dealings … Viggo Mortensen glides up to the A Dangerous Method photocall Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

First on to dry land is director David Cronenberg Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Next out, Mortensen himself, with Vincent Cassel in his wake Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Keira Knightley hops ashore next, followed by Sarah Gadon, who plays Jung's wife in the drama Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Everyone's safely on the decking now, and Mortensen, here being clutched by Michael Fassbender, can unpack the picnic Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Adapted by Christopher Hampton from his play, Talking Cure, the film was tipped by the bookies as a favourite earlier in the week to take the Golden Lion
Photograph: Allstar/Lionsgate/Sportsphoto Ltd

However, those odds may now drop as reviews suggest Cronenberg's latest is more Masterpiece Theatre than outright masterpiece. 'It is,' wrote the Guardian's Xan Brooks, 'a tale that comes marinated in port and choked on pipe-smoke. You long for it to hop down from the couch, throw open the windows and run about in the garden'
Photograph: Allstar/Lionsgate/Sportsphoto Ltd

Audiences in the UK can judge for themselves when the film is released on 10 February 2012
Photograph: Allstar/Lionsgate/Sportsphoto Ltd