Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner, JD Pardo, Hala Finley, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey, Jackie Earle Haley
Even if you're not a fan of his movies (and, personally, I can't say I'm
too fond of them), you have to admire the independent spirit of
Robert Rodriguez. He literally sold his blood to fund his
micro-budget debut, El Mariachi, and has since gone on to fund his own studio and even a TV channel,
employing family and friends in his hometown of Austin, Texas. Acting as
writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, composer et al,
Rodriguez has proven himself skilled at making the most of a limited budget.
Filmmakers accustomed to working wonders with limited means can often
struggle when they're gifted a large budget however. Give Rodriguez $10,000
and he'll deliver a million dollar movie. Trouble is, if you give him $70
million, he'll also deliver a million dollar movie.
$70 million is roughly the budget of his latest, Hypnotic - on which
Rodriguez serves as director, writer (with his son Max Borenstein),
producer, editor and cinematographer (with Pablo Berron) - but save
for the star presence of Ben Affleck, you can't help but wonder where
the money went, as it looks cheaper than many of Rodriguez's low-budget
productions.
We're very much in throwback territory with Hypnotic, but it's never quite clear which period of filmmaking Rodriguez is aping.
It opens like something Don Siegel might have made in the 1970s, with
Affleck's gruff cop Danny Rourke resembling Harry Callahan with his sneering
square jaw and exposed shoulder holster. We find Rourke in the middle of one
of those classic psych evaluations troubled movie cops are always being
forced to attend. In this case it's due to Rourke's obsession with finding
his young daughter, who was abducted from a park several years ago. Rourke
is judged fit for duty and immediately finds himself in a stock cop movie
scenario when he receives a tip-off that a bank is about to be robbed.
The ensuing set-piece probably read well on paper. Rourke spots a sinister
looking man played by the sinister looking actor William Fichtner,
who seems to be speaking to code to various people, including a couple of
armed guards. Turns out the man, Lev Dellrayne, is a "hypnotic", who
can use his powers to put people under his spell and have them aid him in
pulling off major crimes. After messing with Rourke's mind, Dellrayne makes
his escape, leading Rourke to team up with Diana Cruz (Alice Braga),
a psychic who reveals herself to also be a hypnotic, though one whose powers
aren't as strong as those of Dellrayne. Believing Dellrayne is somehow
connected to his daughter's disappearance, Rourke becomes determined to
track him down with Diana's aid.
Hypnotic was reputedly originally conceived back in 2002, but
you'd be forgiven for assuming Rodriguez had come up with the idea in the
wake of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Much of Hypnotic plays like a fanfic version of a Nolan
movie, complete with a brooding male protagonist and his victimised female
family member. Rodriguez even employs the landscape folding in on itself
effect from Inception, which of course was originally devised by FW Murnau for his 1922 movie
Phantom. But everything else about the awful script suggests it was written in the
early '90s, possibly as a vehicle for Stallone, and I mean Frank Stallone.
There are even moments where the obligatory nudity of that era would have
neatly slotted in - Dellrayne using his hypnotic powers to encourage a woman
to strip as a distraction, Diana taking a shower and eventually bedding
Rourke - but of course in these chaste times we simply fade to black as
though it's 1936.
Everything about the production feels cheap, from the bland TV-esque
lighting to a terrible score composed by Rodriguez's son Rebel. When Jeff Fahey pops up, the feeling that you're watching a straight to
video movie from 1991 is cemented. There is a motorbike chase scene that
briefly reminds us Rodriguez knows how to cobble together an action scene,
but otherwise we're left to spend most of the mercifully brief runtime
watching characters explain the plot to one another in various rooms.
The script is an example of how not to write for a visual medium. It's a
constant stream of exposition, most of it delivered by Braga in a role that
does her no favours while Affleck looks on with an expression that suggests
he's only now realising what a terrible movie he's agreed to appear in.
Suspense and tension are entirely absent, because the script is structured
in a manner that tries so hard to outsmart the audience it only ends up
frustrating and confusing us. You'll probably guess the ultimate twist
simply because it's the only way to plausibly explain some of the
inconsistencies riddled throughout the plot.
In this era when it's so rare for Hollywood to greenlight an original movie
with a decent budget and a major star, it's a shame for that gamble to
backfire as badly as Hypnotic. Is there really such a glut of original
scripts that we have to make do with one dusted off from 20 years ago? And
how does someone like Affleck, a competent screenwriter in his own right,
read a script as bad as Hypnotic and think it could possibly
work? Did Rodriguez employ some hypnotic powers of his own to convince
everyone involved they were working on a good movie?
