Hypnotic Review: Ben Affleck Plays Mind Games In Robert Rodriguez's Nolan Knock-Off
The third season of "The X-Files" featured a memorable episode titled "Pusher." Penned by none other than "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan, the story pitted Agents Mulder and Scully against a guy who had the ability to "push" people with his mind and a few suggestive words. Needless to say, the titular pusher uses his ability to manipulate people for evil, and only Mulder and Scully can stop him — unless he alters their minds, too!
It's a pretty good episode, and it's pretty clear that it must be a favorite of Robert Rodriguez because he rather shamelessly rips it off for his new movie "Hypnotic." Working with co-writer Max Borenstein, director Rodriguez creates a film that frequently feels like an extended "X-Files" episode, and when it's not doing that, it's rather liberally borrowing from the work of Christopher Nolan. While it makes sense that anyone would want to rip off Nolan — he's one of our most popular filmmakers — it's somewhat disheartening to see Rodriguez embrace such unoriginality.
There was a time when the filmmaker was a young hotshot, considered innovative and crafty for his ability to stretch minuscule budgets into indie darlings. And as he evolved, he was fond of experimenting, like when he teamed up with Quentin Tarantino to helm the double-feature "Grindhouse," or like when he brought the world of Frank Miller's "Sin City" to life. Going from work like that to ripping off Nolan and old "X-Files" episodes feels like a step backward for the director no matter how you look at it. But the thing is, all of this thievery (or homage-paying if you want to be nice) wouldn't be such an issue if "Hypnotic" managed to tell a good story. Unfortunately, the film is so muddled and disjointed that it becomes a chore to watch. It's not a confusing film — especially since Rodriguez uses the third act to blatantly spell everything out — but it's so narratively murky that you may find yourself wishing someone would hypnotize you into thinking you're watching a better movie.
Gruff Affleck
"Hypnotic" introduces us to Ben Affleck's Danny Rourke, a gruff Austin police detective. And I mean gruff, folks! Affleck adopts a growly voice here that sounds like the remnants of the voice he used to play Batman, and it never comes across as natural. Indeed, Affleck, who can be an incredibly charming and likable actor, is not particularly convincing here — he's been sapped of his abilities by a ho-hum script and flat filmmaking.
Poor Danny is in therapy when we first meet him, and for good reason: his daughter was kidnapped right before his eyes and has never been found, and his wife left him. Despite all that, Danny is ready to get back in the field, and he's quickly (perhaps too quickly, eyes emoji) re-instated into the force. Good thing, too, because he ends up getting a tip that a local bank is about to be robbed!
This is no normal bank robbery, though. A mysterious well-dressed man, played by the always dependable William Fichtner, is at the bank and begins uttering strange words to people he comes across. These words seem to trigger something in these individuals, and soon a woman is running into the street taking her clothes off, claiming she's too hot. Then a pair of security guards end up being part of the robbery — ditto a bank clerk. None of these people know each other and yet suddenly they're all working together to rob a bank. What's going on here?
Watch out for Lev Dellrayne!
Fitchner, who has worked with seemingly everyone, really is one of the best character actors in the biz. He may not be a household name to some, but he's one of cinema's most highly dependable "that guy!" actors. You know the type — they show up in small but memorable roles, leading causal movie watchers to say, "Oh hey, it's that guy!" Here, Fitchner gets to have fun as the heavy — a mystery man with the rather unconvincing name Lev Dellrayne (said with the same exact inflection as saying Lana Del Rey, make of that what you will). Dellrayne has those "X-Files" pusher powers — or, more accurately, he's known as a hypnotic.
Hypnotics are seemingly everywhere in the world of this movie, and Dellrayne is one of the best of the best. Using only a few words and a sly wink or two, he's able to bend people to his will, even forcing them to kill others ... or themselves. He can make two cops shoot each other to death; he can make a bank clerk suddenly become a getaway driver; hell, he can raise an entire army of nameless people to act as his backup.
Affleck's Rourke learns all of this secondhand from Diana (Alice Braga), a woman who works as a storefront psychic but who is actually a very powerful hypnotic herself (just not as powerful as the dastardly Lev Dellrayne). It's bad enough that Rourke is dealing with a guy with evil psychic powers, but soon the cop learns that Dellrayne might have something to do with the disappearance of his daughter.
Where's the fun?
All of this is very silly, but there's nothing wrong with that! In fact, "Hypnotic" would be a lot better off if it learned to lean into that silliness. Instead, Rodriguez keeps everything very dour, and while he injects some life here and there via action beats (the bank robbery scene is quite well-staged, as are several chase sequences), the filmmaker can never really get "Hypnotic" working.
What he does do, however, is throw in more than a few Nolan-like touches. Rourke is fond of brandishing a Polaroid just like Guy Pearce in "Memento," and since the film deals with perception and reality, Rodriguez creates some shots that are quite liberally borrowed from Nolan's "Inception." Buildings that are revealed to not actually be there crumble, and there are multiple occasions where Affleck's character looks up only to see upside-down roadways in the sky — you know, just like in "Inception."
If "Hypnotic" would just stop being so serious and start having some fun with all of this, the flaws would be less noticeable. Indeed, part of what makes Fitchner's performance so memorable here is that he seems to be the only actor having a good time with the material. Whenever "Hypnotic" sidelines him so that Rourke and Diana can share more dull exposition-heavy scenes, the film sags. And that sagging only gets worse in the film's final act, where the script hits us over the head repeatedly as it tries to explain everything that happened. The thing is, we don't need the explanation. We get it. It just wasn't very interesting to begin with.
/Film Rating: 5 out of 10