HOLLOW MAN
Review by John Beachem
* * 1/2
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven Written by: Gary Scott Thompson, Andrew W. Malowe
Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a brilliant research scientist working on a project for the military. He and his six person team are searching for the secret to invisibility. The team consists of his ex-lover, Dr. Linda Foster (Elizabeth Shue), her current lover, Dr. Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), a veterinarian (Kim Dickens), a computer expert (Joey Slotnick), and two assistants (Mary Jo Randle, Greg Grunberg). While causing test animals to attain invisibility hasn't proven difficult, bringing them back to normal has. after almost two weeks of tirelessly searching for a "cure", Sebastian finds it and decides it is time to move on to the next phase of the project - human experimentation. Offering himself up as a guinea pig, Sebastian undergoes the procedure and finds the experience exhilarating. The only problem is, the cure that worked for the animals doesn't work for humans. While the team works tirelessly to return Sebastian to normal, Sebastian slowly loses his sanity as the power invisibility grants him becomes more and more enticing.
For those of you out there who don't know this, Plato once wrote a theory on what would happen to a person who was granted invisibility. I think these writings were, in some small way, part of the inspiration for Gary Thompson and Andrew Marlowes' script. Plato theorized that a person who was invisible could do anything they wanted to, and therefore their morals would vanish. The first half of "Hollow Man" attempts to delve into this idea, and almost succeeds. If the film had been a character study about the effects of such a power on a person's morals and beliefs, it could have been quite fascinating (it would have needed a different director than Paul "Starship Troopers" Verhoeven however). Instead, the part of the film focusing on Sebastian losing his sanity is rushed through and Verhoeven turns the movie into a typical monster/slasher film. I've decided a new law should be implemented in Hollywood: All films will cost half what they do now, and will have a maximum running time of one hour. That's because it seems most Hollywood writers can only keep a good plot going for an hour before transforming an otherwise interesting film into a shapeless mass of cliches.
Kevin Bacon, while by no means a bad actor, is not someone I would call a great talent. He has given a few very good performances ("Stir of Echoes" and "Apollo 13" spring to mind), but he's given a few truly horrendous ones as well ("The River Wild" anyone?). His performance in "Hollow Man" falls squarely in the middle. While he does a decent job playing a man losing his sanity (I think "Stir of Echoes" gave him some practice), his scenes where he is given a chance to display this talent are few and far between. Much more often are the scenes where he gets to act like a deranged lunatic, and he gleefully overacts in these scenes. The biggest problem with Bacon's part isn't actually his fault. The problem is that Sebastian never comes off as particularly sane to begin with, so when he begins losing his mind we're really not too surprised. The majority of his supporting cast has very little screen time, with only Elizabeth Shue ("Palmetto") and Josh Brolin ("Mimic") given any time to develop. Of course, the writers' idea of developing a character seems to be to make that character have a past love life or a past rivalry with another character. Shue and Brolin are required to give slight performances, and they do so beautifully. Watch for William Devane ("Payback") in a very small part as Sebastian's boss.
Let's face it, the main reason everyone's going to see this movie is because the trailers promised two things: some great looking special effects, and a few good scares. On the first count, "Hollow Man" succeeds admirably. The special effects are just about guaranteed a nomination at this year's Oscars. Everything from watching a person turn invisible one layer of skin at a time to seeing a person's hand being bitten into by an invisible ape is masterfully crafted. Unfortunately these effects are completely wasted, and as a result become tiresome after a short while. As for the scares, I can honestly say I didn't jump once, no matter how many startle effects Verhoeven threw at me. I think the reason none of the startle effects worked is because Verhoeven only used them when the audience was anticipating them. If he'd thrown a few at us during scenes when we weren't sitting there, counting down the seconds till the next time Sebastian was going to leap out of the shadows, they might have been fairly effective.
The most painful thing in the entire film must be the last half hour. Up till this point things have been bad, but I could at least tolerate it because I could tell a really interesting story was just aching to break free. In the last half hour the writers throw out everything they had done up till that point and turned the film into a straight out slasher movie, complete with a villain who simply will not die no matter what you do to him (in this case electrocution, fire, being beaten to a bloody pulp, etc.). We also get those two most irritating of all cliches, characters calling out someone's name even when it's obvious who is really there, and a group splitting up so they can be picked off one by one. The dialogue up till the last half hour was at least tolerable if not good, but it falls flat on its face and becomes downright painful during that excruciating segment of the film. The score composed by Jerry Goldsmith ("LA Confidential") for "Hollow Man" isn't quite appropriate to the film; though that's probably not his fault. While it should have been low and creepy, Verhoeven decides on loud and obnoxious instead (a disturbing trend in Hollywood these days). At one point Sebastian says "You don't make history by following the rules, you make it by seizing the moment." I wish Verhoeven and company had followed this advice. "Hollow Man" runs far too long at 114 minutes. I recommend it to fans of "special effects over story" movies and give it two and a half out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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