The Hypnotist (2012)

Lack of good storyline.

Excellent but underrated film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Lasse Hallström is a master of sentimental American Feel-Good Dramas with films like 'THE CIDERHOUSE RULE (1999)', 'WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (1993)' and 'AN UNFINISHED LIFE (2005)' and others on his resume.With 'THE HYPNOTIST (2012)' he decided to go back to his roots (at least country-wise) to Sweden after more than 20 years working abroad (primarily the US).This movie is as far away from the typical feel-good movies he usually makes as possible though, a very bleak and very typical Swedish detective film.Another thing you can usually count on with his films is great cinematography with beautiful rich and warm colours, but being that this movie is not his typical bag he decided to go the complete opposite in that aspect too.Most scenes are filmed with intentional poor lighting to cause a sense of dread but honestly just makes it boring to look at instead with washed out colours and overall just a very unimpressive look (save for a couple outdoor scenes).The script I guess it could have been an okay movie technically but the acting is really dodgy, especially the lead detective played by the unknown (for me at least) Tobias Zilliacus who's seemingly sleepwalking through the scenes for the more part.Persbrandt and Olin occasionally gets it right but hardly either's proudest acting-moments.Helena Af Sandeberg is in it for a little bit, I usually like her a lot but her role is fairly pointless in this one.So yeah, not very impressive and incredibly drawn out.It's based on a book and even though I haven't read it I am sure that that is much better than the movie, don't see how it could be any worse.

With a big budget and two star actors including Mikael Persbrandt (from BECK fame), THE HYPNOTIST has everything going for it.Set in Stockholm around Christmas, it concerns the mass slaughter of a family, a traumatized boy (Jonatan Bokman), and a hypnotist (Persbrandt) who uses his powers to try and coax information out of the boy. Brought in by the local CID inspector (Tobias Zilliacus), the hypnotist thinks he is doing a good job, but matters take an unexpected turn when his son Benjamin (Oscar Pettersson) is unexpectedly abducted. The plot becomes a race against time to rescue Benjamin, a hemophiliac, before he hemorrhages.Lasse Hallström's production is highly atmospheric, using the snow- covered streets and gray lights of a Swedish winter to create a sense of foreboding in a story that proves more complicated than initially suggested. The film brings out the hypnotist's complicated past - he was struck off for having been involved in a child abuse scandal a few years previously. Persbrandt conveys an air of injured pride, as someone trying to do his job but victimized by circumstances beyond his control.As the action unfolds, however, so the plot begins to fall apart, leaving plenty of unexplained holes: how does an apparently catatonic patient manage to escape from the hospital and try to stab the hypnotist? Why should the mother of one boy want to kidnap another family's child? And how did she find out about the other family anyway? The film comes to a highly melodramatic conclusion in the frozen wastes of rural Sweden, involving a minivan gradually sinking under the ice and at least one unwanted death.The film invites us to speculate on the morality of hypnotizing someone so as to obtain information, but loses the courage of its convictions by the end.

When a gym teacher is found stabbed to death the police go to his home to inform his family and are shocked to discover that his wife and daughter have been similarly murdered and his son is seriously injured. He is taken to hospital but is unable to recall what happened. Detective Inspector Joona Linna is investigating the case but has no idea how to proceed until it is suggested that he brings in psychiatrist Erik Bark to hypnotise the boy. This leads to some advances in the case but it also leads to Bark and his family being targeted by a mystery character in a hood. This character breaks into their house, drugs his wife and kidnaps his son before making it clear that they want Bark to stop helping the investigation.This is a decent enough Swedish murder mystery even if it felt more like a television drama than a film made for the cinema. The mystery was interesting enough and there were some twists… even if when they are revealed they feel a bit cliché. There is plenty of tension and an impressive finale involving a bus on a frozen lake. The acting is solid without being overly showy with fine performances from Tobias Zilliacus, Mikael Persbrandt and Lena Olin as DI Linna and the Barks. Overall a solid enough Scandi-drama that fans of the genre might enjoy even if it isn't one of the best.These comments are based on watching the film in Swedish with English subtitles.

The book in my view is very poorly written-chapter a day formulaic stuff (obviously written by two people) . However the plot, or backstory, as they say these days, is quite interesting.So to make a film of a poor book with a good plot and ignore the plot to the extent that you have no idea why anybody does anything is frankly ludicrous.I love Scandinavian noir so could still enjoy the atmospherics,the cinematography and some of the acting but as a coherent whole forget it.Despite the film having more style than the book I wouldn't recommend this to anyone .