The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing me that Ben Affleck hadn’t been working since 2021. Yet, Affleck’s fifth directorial effort Air, which has a brand-recognition (and by that, I mean EGOT winner Violas Davis) synopsis that can lure in some of Boston’s biggest factions, quietly swooped into theaters and created decent buzz. And as of the week of its release, I find out that Affleck is the lead role in Robert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic, an inspired offspring of Christopher Nolan’s fifth-dimensional mysteries where spatial laws are flexible and black suits and gunpower are a universal mandate.

“Is this what you do when you say you’re going to work all day?” Jennifer Lopez asks Affleck as he’s working at a drive-thru in the inevitable sponsored Dunkin’ commercial (I guess Jenny from the Block is also not immune to the devil’s tricks). And truly, if it weren’t for the short clips of Affleck looking so outwardly uncomfortable with Lopez (there must be around five moments in this year alone, both papped and primetime TV) fixated in my head, I would have probably responded to her, “Was he not with you?” But as it may be, Newton’s fourth law is that whatever and wherever Ben Affleck is in, he holds a gravitational pull that is undeniable in the New England region. With temps nearing 80 degrees, the salty brine of tourists in the air, and an Affleck action film, it’s good to announce that summer is here in Boston.

Hypnotic is Rodriguez’s come-down from the monstrous entity of Alita: Battle Angel, though it is still an adventurous undertaking. Affleck plays Danny Rourke, an Austin police detective who is experiencing trauma following the abduction of his daughter. He intercepts a bank robbery overheard on the radio, where he finds a Polaroid of his daughter with the words “Find Lev Dellrayne” scrawled on it in a targeted deposit box. To up the confusion, he faces an unknown man (William Fichtner) at the bank, who reveals that he is a mind-controller looking for Danny’s daughter. Unsure of what’s happening, Affleck finds Diana (Alice Braga), a fortuneteller who imparts the secrecy of the Hypnotics, people who can control others and create “hypnotic constructs,” which can completely alter a person’s environment and create a false reality. Danny’s “psychic block,” which was created when he lost his daughter, seems to grant him immunity from the Hypnotics. Danny and Diana then try to prance over the mystery landmines that lay ahead as they try to find the unknown man and possibly Danny’s daughter.

The film might be trying to achieve a few things: a Memento-style whodunit family affair (Rodriguez’s children are involved with Hypnotic‘s music composition, writing, and editing) with an Inception-driven howdunit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get past the part where we ask, “What’s going on?” which isn’t intended as a self-admitted defeat of comprehension but rather, “How did we allow this to happen?” If you have seen a Nolan film, you will probably be able to guess Hypnotic‘s supposed sharp twists. But even with a weaker storyline, some films in this genre are able to get away with visual effects as being the standout (Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade comes to mind) that you almost forget why we’re supposed to care. It’s too bad that Rodriguez wasn’t able to carry some of the cyberpunk merriment from Alita to this film, because that alone would have boosted this into a notable summer flick.

I’ve written about Affleck before, and I think the reason why I find him so easy to talk about is because he is adept in Hollywood-recognized talent and in clumsy scandals. When Tom Hiddleston allegedly lost the role of James Bond due to an infamous 4th of July party, he seemed to have lost the taste of the spotlight and had only resurfaced to the mainstream for Marvel’s Loki.  However, Affleck thrives despite the meme-ful misgivings and embarrassing foils. In fact, I am unusually unbothered by seeing him on screen, as I don’t feel like his professional commitments are compromised by what happens on and off the screen. He is perennially Ben Affleck, but in this blockbuster season, he is unwaveringly Phil Knight, Danny Rourke, and Bruce Wayne.

Hypnotic
2023
dir. Robert Rodriguez
92 min.

Now playing at Apple Cinemas, Kendall Square Cinema, and AMC Boston Common, Assembly Row, and South Bay