HYPNOTIC

US, 2023, 92 minutes, Colour.

Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, J.D. Pardo, William Fichtner, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey, Jackie Earle Haley, Hala Finley, Ionia Olivia Nieves.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Hypnosis, being mesmerised, withdrawing from reality and being led into memories, into the past – or into an alternate reality.

This thriller opens with Ben Affleck squared-jawed, granite-jawed, as a local cop in Austin, Texas whose daughter has been abducted. He is desperate, of course, to find her. Lately, Ben Affleck has been has had great successes on screen, emerging as a talented director, appearing in Air, The Flash…) And behind the camera is significant director, Robert Rodriguez who also writes and edits his films, always making them in his home city of Austin, making them there for 30 years (from action franchises like Sin City, Machete to more popular entertainments as the Spy Kids films).

As we follow Affleck’s officer Danny Rourke in action, tipped off concerning a bank robbery about to happen, defying advice endangering himself and others, but he is confronted by a controlling stranger, who has the eye-contact capacity to control people, make them do what he wants them to do, destructively. He is a hypnotic and is played in the sinister form of William Fichtner as villain.

A settling into the familiar territory of robberies, the police, investigations and pursuits.

Further clues, however, lead to a tarot card reader, Diana, Alice Braga, who explains to Rourke – and to us the audience – that there are, from birth, powerful hypnotics with dominant control. So far, so interesting as a police thriller in the police thriller vein.

At this stage we might be tempted to Google and find out whether such a phenomenon as a hypnotic is real. (And, coming home from the cinema, this reviewer did Google only to find that the reference to hypnotics is to drugs used to control sleep, sedatives.)

But then, Rourke and Diana escape to Mexico, she using her hypnotic skills to get them through borders, out of dangerous confrontations, controlling all who meet her eye. But we also travel into the realm of science-fiction, scientific experimentation, and political repercussions. Many characters are not what they seem. Reality is not what it seems.

So the latter part of Hypnotic takes us into the world of memory, loss of memory, alternate reality, constructed reality, to discover who Diana is or might be, who Danny Rourke really is and why he is trying to track down his abducted daughter – and who she is.

There is resolution at the end, a blend of killings as well as happy family.

But, Robert Rodriguez is tantalising us with his plot. And we have to pay attention during the final credits. Hypnotic 2 is not an impossibility.

1. The title, hypnosis, mesmerising? The Hypnotics, their power, from birth, controlling? A science-fiction idea?
2. Austin, Texas? Police precincts, the bank, the streets, buildings? The tarot card shop? Mexico, the locations, the special distorted effects? The discovery of the headquarters, setting up sequences? Sequences in the imagination? The musical score?
3. The focus on Danny Rourke, Austin cop, sitting in the park, his daughter, her disappearance, the abductor, his disappearance? The court case? Eagerness to find his daughter? His partnering with Nicks? The message about the bank, the stakeout, the deposit box, Rourke going into the bank, the photo in the box, the pursuit of Delrayne? The confrontation with him, his controlling the police, the guards shooting each other? His disappearance?
4. The clue for the tarot cards, Diana, the meeting, her story, the threats, the explanation of hypnotics? Her own powers? Delrayne, the pursuit, Diana’s control, the escape to Mexico?
5. In Mexico, the crowds, the confrontations, the powers? The distortion of the locations?
6. Danny, being taken, the cell, Nicks, Diana? The revelation of the conspiracy, the science fiction aspects, the Hypnotics, the importance of Minnie, her skills as a Hypnotic? Danny and his powers, marriage to Diana? Their daughter? The issue of Minnie, the abduction, the powers wanting her? Delrayne and a different perspective on him?
7. The characters, Nick’s and his death, River?
8. The elaborate setup, the sets, the ability to create sets, the characters in uniform, their participation, the scenarios? River and Nicks in the scenarios? The revelation to Danny, Is Challenging them, urging them to follow the scenario again? The new setup, the participation, Danny’s escape?
9. The farm, the couple, caring for Minnie, Danny reunited with his daughter, the arrival of Delrayne and the squad, the role of Diana?
10. The shootouts? Danny succeeding, the couple sacrificing themselves? Then the family United?
11. Delrayne, bringing the dead couple to life?