Hypnotic (2023)

Score: 1.5 / 5

Well, it certainly isn't hypnotic in the real sense of the word. In Hypnotic, the concept is in fact a noun, one that designates someone who can instantaneously hypnotize people and effectively control their minds. The film vaguely suggests that, once trained by a shadowy government agency called "the Division," these individuals can force suggestibility on nearly anyone -- and usually everyone nearby -- with a single stare, a flash of a watch or ring, and get them to do or think anything. One woman becomes instantly convinced she's melting from heat and starts stripping on the street; cops instantly forget who and what they serve; a devoted client of a fortune teller drives his motorcycle through the front of her shop. And why is all this happening?

Your guess is as good as mine. Writer and director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Once Upon a Time in Mexico) has here created a rare complete flop, at least for this viewer, and I don't particularly like his movies anyway. This hazy attempt at a science fiction thriller feels like Rodriguez was playing his best imitation of Christopher Nolan and failing miserably. It's a bizarre, Western-dressed neo-noir heist caper that seems loosely inspired by Inception and The Prestige. It's one of those annoying movies in which too many mysteries are set up early on, most are solved stupidly halfway through, and then it recreates itself with more mysteries, all of which are neatly tied up by a self-obsessed all-encompassing revelation in the climax that feels both contrived to a fault and totally unbelievable.

Ben Affleck delivers a typically reliable performance, though it's clear he has little real interest in the material or his own character, as a Texas detective who can't escape the memories of his seven-ear-old daughter who was abducted under his watch some time ago and whose kidnapping led to his divorce and suicidal depression. This film starts with him (the character names did not stick with me and frankly don't matter) being called to a bank heist masterminded by a creepy older man played by William Fichtner, who we later learn is one of these "hypnotics" after Affleck notices his weird behaviors at the crime scene and the unaccountable, violent tendencies of nearly everyone he speaks with. By the end of the sequence, Affleck has a photo of his daughter, a strange note with a clue, and a lot of questions in his shaken memory.

Filmed in wide shots that use lots of lens tricks to warp our own perception, Rodriguez (who also aided with cinematography) really wants us to feel immersed in what he thinks is a mind-bending mystery of altered reality. It is none of these things, and I found myself often getting irritated by his clear string-pulling attempts to influence the audience rather than just focusing on the messy plot or obnoxiously obtuse characters. The plot twists -- which happen every twenty minutes or so -- are both unrelenting and obvious; the dialogue is so exposition-heavy and emotionally bankrupt, I think I'd rather read a synopsis than hear it. Even Alice Braga can't save the film from its own stupidity as a "dime store psychic" who turns out to be (SPOILER ALERT) his ex-wife and mother of his abducted child. And, wait, did I mention that they are both also hypnotics who have had their memories wiped so that The Division (asinine sci-fi verbiage like this is exactly why I always have misgivings about the genre) can locate and take their daughter for themselves, because the daughter of two hypnotics is apparently a powerful asset.

Sure, if you like Rodriguez and his weird fetishizing of white-ish American Southwest culture, there are some moments you might dig in this movie. I personally found the sheer amount of heavy black leather both enticing and laughable, as the whole film is set in sun-bleached, dusty Austin and its environs. The couple of times special effects are employed, namely during chase scenes as the road ahead appears to bend up and curl over the sky (a la Inception or Doctor Strange), it's so cheap looking that I had to double check who directed and what studio produced, because it's uglier than any effects widely released in cinemas these days. Apart from one single scene featuring Jackie Earle Haley, which is admittedly effective and effectively haunting, Hypnotic was a colossal waste of resources and talents for the filmmakers and a woeful waste of time for this viewer.