Sam Foster (McGregor) is a psychiatrist who's racing the clock and his own failing grip on reality to keep Henry Latham (Gosling) from committing suicide. Since Sam's girlfriend, Lila Culpepper (Watts) once made a suicide attempt, Sam has a lot of emotional investment in stopping Henry.
Sam wears tweedy suits with a tie and a sweater or sweater vest that makes him look a bit like a fashion victim, especially since all of his pants are much too short. Everything seems to have been modeled after what Freud wore (they did a great job there). Though Sam may have a Freudian fixation, most therapists don't.
Every profession has fashion victims who appear to have last gone shopping in 1975, but psychology doesn't have a disproportionate number. There are so many people in psychology who have an "alternative" outlook that most won't look twice at you if you have your nose pierced or dye your hair strawberry red. (That, on the other hand, can contribute to the stereotype that all psychologists are flaky hippies, which also isn't true.)
Many therapists are trained to pay attention to their "stimulus value," or the impressions they give others. Then they're able to make decisions about whether they want to keep presenting the image they do.
You can click on any of the images below for a larger version.
 Stay poster |
 dressed like Freud |
 the Freud look in brown |
 short pants |
 these are too short too |
 Freud himself for comparison |
