Quick! Will somebody please tell director Robert Rodriguez that he’s no Christopher Nolan? His crime thriller “Hypnotic” feels like the mockbuster version of “Inception.” It is laughably bad, from the shoddy acting to the dreadful screenplay.
Detective Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck) is determined to investigate the mystery involving his missing daughter, whom he lost on a playground years ago. While diving back into the events that occurred that day, he goes down an extensive rabbit hole filled with criminals and mind control, bending his reality. Aided by a gifted psychic (Alice Braga), Rourke discovers a secret government program that is in hot pursuit.
It’s a ridiculous premise that requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief. The story is inadvertently campy (it’s unclear if Rodriguez intended for his movie to be, however, because the entire thing is played with sincerity). The film is equally sloppy and silly, and the plot is not unlike a soap opera during sweeps week. There are characters with preposterous hypnosis superpowers who constantly use “hypnotic constructs” to reshape reality.
Rodriguez doesn’t write much of a story either, choosing to rely on the vague and constantly shifting boundaries of dreamlike trances to take the easy way out. When something exciting happens, it often turns out that it didn’t really happen because it was simply an illusion from hypnosis. It’s a deceptive trick that’s overused here, showcasing a real disrespect to the audience.
The film explains things in a way that assumes the audience is comprised of a gaggle of idiots who are watching a mediocre network procedural. The dialogue is clumsily written, and it’s amplified by Affleck’s worse than usual turn in the lead role. Keep an eye out when the Razzie Awards roll around because he should be this year’s front runner.
“Hypnotic” is a bad movie. When nothing is real or as it seems, and you can’t trust anything you see happening, who cares? I certainly didn’t.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 