Director: Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Thriller/
Mystery/ Action
Runtime: 93
minutes
Year:
2023
Starring: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey,
JD Pardo, Jackie Earle Haley
Description: A detective
(Ben Affleck) investigates a mystery involving his missing daughter and a
secret government program.
Review: Danny Rourke looked the other way for just a second when he was in the
park with his daughter, and she was gone forever. Years later, he’s still not
over that, but at least he wants to be able to do his job as a detective. One day
a report comes in that someone will rob a bank later that day. They do, but in
a very bizarre way. Danny goes to investigate and immediately stumbles upon an
almost supernatural world he was unaware of.
They exist, people who can
convince you that you’ve done something and immediately believe it, even if it
turns out not to be true. That is the power of suggestion. Director Robert
Rodriguez took this fact and turned it into fiction. In “Hypnotic”, some people
posses the gift to use certain trigger words and make people see a certain
reality.
It’s a good concept, but not
perfectly executed. Rodriguez was clearly inspired by movies like “Inception”, “Tennant”
and “Shutter Island”. How so, you need to watch it yourself. Withing the
reality of “Hypnotic”, a few details don’t quite make sense. In the end
everything turns out to make sense according to the rules of this film.
The film has some surprising
and original twists, but the eventually keep coming and it just becomes ridiculous.
Even after the credits there is another twist, this was unnecessary.
Ben Affleck is on auto-pilot
here. Definitely not one of his best roles, he just does what needs to be done.
Overall, “Hypnotic” is not a
bad film, but it’s not all that special. It’s one of those movies that you will
forget you’ve watched at the end of the year.
Rating: 3/ 5
