What is there to say about a film like Hypnotic? I mean that literally, I’m not quite sure how much I can dig into something like this without just having this entire review be a full on plot summary. It’s one of those movies, and that can be something that either works in the film’s favor, or it doesn’t. In the case of Robert Rodriguez’s latest film, it’s a bit of both, and it’s quite the odd duck of a film, not just as its own bizarre thriller just hitting theaters, but even within the context of Rodriguez’s eclectic but very recognizable filmography.
The basic setup, at least what’s established in the initial act of the film is that we have Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck), a detective who works with the Austin Police Department, and he is as withered and downtrodden as they come, and for valid reasons. Years ago, his daughter was abducted while they were at the park, and while the perpetrator was arrested, they claim to know nothing about the current whereabouts of the daughter, not remembering the kidnapping even happened. The stress of their failure to locate the daughter has resulted in a broken marriage as he now pours himself into his work.
His first big assignment back involves looking into a tip that a bank is going to be robbed. Him and other officers do a stakeout at the bank where they observe everyone in the area on monitors. In those monitors, they find a strange man, later referred to as “Lev Dellrayne” (William Fichtner), who seems to be talking to a civilian and then two guards in a suspicious manner. Rourke follows Lev into the bank, which is soon robbed by the guards and a worker who appear to be operating under his control. Rourke confront Lev as he’s about to make his escape, since the safety deposit box contained a picture of his missing daughter, but he loses him, and witnesses the man seemingly convince two other officers to shoot each other.
From there, we go on this weird and wild mystery where Danny tries to figure out who this mysterious man is, what his connection is to his daughter, and how he might be able to track him down, as well as what his strange abilities seem to be. He utilizes the help of a fortuneteller named Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), who seems to be aware of this man, and says he a “hypnotic,” powerful hypnotists who can control people’s minds, and Danny is seemingly immune to their control. She would know because she is one herself, and she ends up getting reluctantly involved in Danny’s mission as Lev starts pursuing them.
It’s a lot to take in, and if there’s any part of you that has a feeling on where this is ultimately going, there’s a chance you’re going to be right. By the very nature of it, when you have things like mind control, perceptions of reality being skewed, mysterious pasts, even more mysterious people that our characters bump into, there’s definitely a formula for these kinds of movies, and Rodriguez doesn’t seem to mind squeezing into those tropes like a old, comfy coat. It also has a strong early 2000s vibe to it, which was pretty much confirmed when I later read that Rodriguez wrote the initial draft back in 2002 before Max Borenstein came in more recently to do a rewrite.
In some respects, this is unlike anything else by Rodriguez, it is a relatively more “normal” movie than we’re used to. But when you really break it down, I think it fits fairly well in his filmography. His films are often highly stylized genre pictures, ones that will often embrace the artifice of the filmmaking process, for better and for worse, and embracing classic tropes while often having a sense of humor about itself at the same time. This definitely doesn’t have much in terms of humor, though there is an amusing callback to the piss joke from Desperado. But also, when you’re dealing in manipulated realities, you’re ultimately talking about the very nature of cinema itself, reality that is unreal. The first act in particular has lots of shades of noir thrown in with harsh shadows, Affleck doing his most weary Humphrey Bogart, and certain scenes and line deliveries that have a distinct “looks like a fake movie” funk, which felt totally intentional.
All in all, I found Hypnotic to not necessarily be a great movie, I do think the twists upon twists make things quite a bit unwieldy as we got to the second half, but I did find the film fairly engaging and interesting throughout, and sometimes something so strange would happen that I would be pretty amused by. I think it wouldn’t have hurt to do another pass or so on the script, but it’s cool to see something like this from Robert Rodriguez, who, unlike a lot of long established filmmakers of his generation, seems to keep trying to find new ways to experiment and expand his horizons as an artists. Which, considering some of his recent stuff, I’m glad this one turned out to be this entertaining. I don’t know if this is something I’ll see myself revisiting, but it’s one I’m glad to have seen, that’s for sure.
Hypnotic is now out in theaters.