Jonah Naplan   June 28, 2023

You don’t notice that Robert Rodriguez directed “Hypnotic,” and somehow that’s the most notable thing about the entire movie. His team-up with Ben Affleck is a sallow, generic, and uninspired outing, and a poor attempt to capture the lightning in a bottle that is Christopher Nolan’s best and twistiest work. “Hypnotic” stumbles on its own feet, trying relentlessly to concoct an insightful narrative with crevices. Rodriguez and Affleck do not turn out so lucky. Neither does the viewer.

“Hypnotic” follows Texas police detective Daniel Rourke (Affleck), a man deeply traumatized by the kidnapping of his young daughter many years ago. The film chronicles his race to find out the truth, when it’s revealed she may still be alive, and also his confrontation with the demons of his past. And there are plenty. Rourke is on the run from a ruthless, mind-controlling “hypnotic” portrayed by William Fichtner, and his adversary’s powers allow him to get inside the minds of people to convince them of a version of reality that is not real.

In an early establishing scene, Rourke and his team chase down the Fichtner character inside a bank, leaving our action hero dazed and confused. In a safety deposit box, Rourke finds a polaroid of his daughter Minnie (Hala Finley), and messy handwriting in Sharpie at the bottom reads, “Find Lev Dell Rayne.”

Who is Lev Dell Rayne, exactly? We’re not sure for a good period of time. Nor are we sure about much of what unfolds on screen. Rourke’s investigation takes him to a “dime store psychic” named Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), his gateway into the mythology of hypnotics. Cruz is a strong, but much less powerful one than Fichtner, and knows full well that she is not capable of bringing him, or any of his unfortunate, mind-controlled subjects down. So I guess they begin to form a team?

“Hypnotic” takes place and was shot in Austin, Texas; a common background for Rodriguez’s—who also wrote and edited the movie—films, as fans may appreciate. Diana is able to chauffeur Rourke around through some of the more sketchy areas, encountering a number of half-baked caricatures along the way. Of the most significance, they seek refuge with an outcast named River (Dayo Okeniyi), who camps out in an impressive underground bunker. What’s his one interesting character trait? River wears an eyepatch that he switches from eye to eye to avoid detection from security cameras.

The Austin that “Hypnotic” takes place in does not feel occupied. It reeks of drab and dreary, gray and lusterless. I’d have to assume that’s not what Rodriguez was aiming for. The director, who also helmed “Alita: Battle Angel” and “Sin City,” not to mention the “Spy Kids” films, seems to be on less surer footing here than usual. The world that engulfs his characters does not feel lived-in or believable, nor does his plot feel developed, or his twist earned. “Hypnotic,” with a shocking budget of $65 million, looks cheap and effortless, and not the good kind. But some scenes radiate potential. In a few key moments, Rourke looks up at the sky, as the horizon warps into delirium. Rodriguez is hinting at something more interesting here; something with depth and intrigue. Then he goes back to another shoot-out at a railroad track or city skyscraper. 

“Hypnotic” often does not know what it wants to be, and the film is so short (93 minutes) that it doesn’t have the time to figure it out, either. The third act is so ambitious, yet so cumbersome, because the other two acts that preceded it don’t ride a wavelength that makes the last twenty minutes earned or especially memorable. It’s an eccentric Nolan-wannabe that feels contractually reworked to its peak, drolling into madness once the secrets start to come out in a narratively clumsy fashion.

I can see what Rodriguez is trying to do here, and some of the setups dispersed throughout the movie that lead to the big conclusion are smart. But as a film, as a big picture, as a story in full, “Hypnotic” doesn’t work. Affleck himself is fine, as is Braga. But their pieces never entirely coalesce into a whole. And everything else—the filmmaking, cinematography, script, editing, score—is passable, sure, but never enough to make us even raise an eyebrow.

These sort of sci-fi thrillers aren’t made a whole lot anymore. And “Hypnotic” proves that even less often are they made well. Even so, Rodriguez certainly does have a vision here, and I respect that. It’s a good vision, and more time and freedom could have allowed it room to soar. In its own way, “Hypnotic” is saying so much and so little at the same time. Or maybe I’m just the one dazed and confused.