Hypnotisoija

The Hypnotist is a decent thriller that focuses on the gradual unraveling of a sophisticated mystery. Some moments are predictable, but the story always keeps some questions unanswered. The married couple’s troubles shouldn’t have gotten so much space, as they slow the film down unnecessarily, although a certain hypnotic slowness is part of the game with the audience. The gloomy atmosphere of Stockholm in winter is not as powerful as the creators had intended, but Mikael Persbrandt excels in the role of the hypnotist. His performance is the best part of the film. (26.05.2013)

An ex-hypnotist Erik is going through a marriage crisis when he gets a phone call at night, probably from a woman, but there’s a man at the other end of the line – a cop. Erik doesn’t hesitate and bolts, which makes his wife anxious, fearing that he’s cheating on her again. Two years ago, he did and she still doesn’t trust him. By the way, Erik loves pills. And when he sees an unconscious boy in the hospital, it turns into a very pleasant crime investigation, which is, after all, what the Northerners are so much better at.  Even though as they say, all that glitters is not gold. In any case, I must admit that it wasn’t all that bad. I expected much worse. (09.08.2014)

A truly hypnotic anti-detective story that has no tension, no charisma, and no atmosphere. Moreover, the script is so emphatically retarded that the barely average book by "Mr. and Mrs. Kepler" looks like a masterpiece compared to the film. The highlight of everything is the character of Joona Linna. I don’t think I have never seen a detective who lets a witness go who tells him at the beginning of the investigation that she knows the killer. And I've probably never seen a detective solve a case by sitting on the spot. Sorry, I have - his name was Zeman. In addition, Hallström filmed it unbearably statically (the whole family storyline is stereotyped to death) and in some places senselessly with too much flourish, as if the last thing he saw from a detective story came from the pre-Fincher Hollywood of the 90's. The result is so sexless and stupid that it offends. (21.03.2013)

I understand that from time to time Lasse Hallström wants to break out of the box of creating tender dramas full of family silver and romantic tears, but here even he himself could never have possibly thought he would succeed. The entire snowy investigation remains sadly mediocre and unremarkable even in crucial twists, and the unforgettable cast of actors (with the honorable exception of the grumpy Mikael Persbrandt) doesn't change anything about that. (06.06.2013)

I wrestled with this film like a lion for its entire seventeen-and-a-half-hour running time because, ironically, Hallström isn't shooting like a total block of wood this time, and I even glimpsed something of a creative vision here and there. And yet how such a non-dramatic genre film, switching so insensitively between characters, with such a stupid script that never saw a story editor even from a distance, could ever have gotten released, you tell me. By the time the end credits rolled, I realized that two-thirds of the scenes in this film were completely unnecessary, and the withered Swedish faces, the constant gloom, and the stabbed little girl unfortunately couldn't save it. (27.08.2013)

Lasse Hallström knows how to make films that I like, but when he gets a script that thinks highly of itself but isn't as mysterious or suspenseful as the creators would like, he doesn't manage to extract anything truly substantial from it. Nordic noir isn't always a treasure; sometimes it's just a detective story. (01.06.2017)