Der Hypnotiseur (The Hypnotist, Hypnotisören)
Sweden 2012

Opening 21 Feb 2013

Directed by: Lasse Hallström
Writing credits: Paolo Vacirca, Lasse Hallström, Alexander Ahndoril
Principal actors: Tobias Zilliacus, Mikael Persbrandt, Lena Olin, Helena af Sandeberg, Oscar Pettersson

This Swedish thriller based on the bestseller book by Lars Kepler leads us down a cold-blooded path. The film opens with a brutal killing of a coach in a sport hall at a school; the next crime scene takes place at a home in the suburbs, leaving one victim in critical condition, two dead and one missing family member. Detective Joona Linna who arrives first at both crimes scenes is frantically trying to solve the case. He focuses on an idea given to him by the doctor in charge that night. She informs him that a trauma specialist can retrieve information from the victim by hypnosis which could be used to solve the case. The only problem is that the hypnotist does not want to go down that dark psychological path.

The atmosphere of this film is dark and moody but lacks the interest that the Steig Larsson stories created. A young computer hacker with a dragon tattoo has more weight than that of a trauma specialist with a sleeping problem. I felt like I had taken too many Prozac while watching this film, since the characters where empathetic and disjointed. This film would have been better off as a horror film based on Zombies in Stockholm. I really didn’t care about any of the characters even when the mystery was solved at the end. It is a typical crime story of which we see many every evening on TV and, personally, I think I would rather watch this one on TV than spend money at the theater. A big disappointment! (Shelly Schoeneshoefer)