One of my all-time favorite directors is Robert Rodriguez. He has been churning out such a wide variety of original films for years including the El Mariachi series, The Spy Kids Series, From Dusk Till Dawn and more recently Alita: Battle Angel and his work on The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett. Now he is teaming up with Ben Affleck for his latest film Hypnotic co-starring William Fichtner and Alice Braga, but could this film hypnotize audiences, or will it fail to be more than a memory?

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Hypnotic follows Austin detective Danny Rourke, determined to find his missing daughter, who finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole while investigating a series of reality-bending bank robberies where he will ultimately call into question his most basic assumptions about everything and everyone in his world. Aided by Diana Cruz (Alice Braga), an unnervingly gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal specter (William Fichtner) - the one man he believes holds the key to finding the missing girl - only to discover more than he ever bargained for.

 

I personally have always been a fan of Affleck, but firmly believe that as he has become an outstanding director it has made him an even better actor. We don’t get a ton of him outside of his own projects but when we do it tends to be something interesting. Teaming up with the always great Rodriguez had me eager to see what they were bringing to the table but was bummed the movie didn’t get the push it deserved.

 

The story here is filled with twists and turns as it progresses into a world I was not expecting from the trailer. Part of what made me enjoy this flick came from just that. The unexpected. Affleck is great here getting to dive into something of a Hitchcockian thriller that blurs the lines of reality and sci-fi in an interesting way. I was expecting something more straightforward so as the truth is exposed it becomes more and more clear that there is more here than you think.

 

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