Our visibility is our greatest handicap.
Hollow Man is a film by Paul Verhoven, the
Dutch director who's sense of mischief and the bizarre
I love. The dog buys the farm. How many American directors
have got the guts to do that eh? Verhoven is great.
This film, a tongue-in-cheek horror is great fun, slightly
spoiled by the seen-it-all-before, who-cares ending. There
is an adage that in a horror film you should not show
your monsters. It is hard to imagine a film better qualified
to take advantage of this dictum than
Hollow Man
for it's monster is literally invisible. And yet, ironically,
this movie showed too much of the invisible man!
This is forgivable though, because it is an excuse to
show some astonishing special effects. Forget the plot,
this film is not about plot but about ideas. For example,
this film is about an invisible man (Kevin Bacon) and
when he becomes invisible, he doesn't just melt away into
nothing via a simple fade, he vanishes ungracefully, painfully,
astonishingly. First his skin gradually becomes transparent,
then the muscles, the organs, the circulating blood, the
nerves and finally the bones. It is amazing to see, a
digital wonderment. Verhoven shows us things we have never
seen before. This film boasts what must be the first male
full frontal in movie history that goes beyond nudity
to showcasing Bacon's tackle sans skin! Hehe. And there
is an inspired breast-fondling scene that had me grinning
at its wonderfully gratuitous novelty. Gratuity is underrated,
there is a lot of entertainment to be had in gratuity.
Who says that gratuitous sex is worse than any other sort?
I have always wished I could be invisible and
Hollow
Man has waxed my yearning. The potential of abuse
that the power that invisibility offers would corrupt
me absolutely and beyond. Plato argued convincingly that
invisibility would cause us all to become corrupt criminals
by removing the deterrent of detection. The film was strong
in conveying this idea of corruption. It is such a shame
Hollow Man didn't quite sustain its novel
brilliance and descended into cliché towards the
end.
Oh, and there is the most implausible escape from a room
scene I have ever seen in my life. My weakening grasp
of physics is not so tenuous that I can't tell you that
magnetic fields do not pass through steel. And that is
only the half of it. Lovely tear though. There are oodles
of lovely touches in this film.
I didn't identify with any of the cast except for Bacon
himself, who is the villain of the piece. The rest of
the cast were pretty dull and mediocre. Oh well. It's
not the first time I have cheered on the baddie in a movie,
and it won't be the last. Elizabeth Shue was miscast as
the leading lady. She is intelligent, game, lovely and
earnest but she definitely isn't plausible as an action
heroine cum sultry siren type the film needed. An actress
akin to Charlize Theron would have been splendid in this
role. Shue's screen boyfriend was worse, he was more invisible
than the Hollow Man himself for all the presence he had.
I didn't sense his angst at his conflicts with Bacon,
or his love for Shue.
Hollow Man is a splendid pic that intensely
arouses for an hour or so, but doesn't quite manage to
last the distance. Who cares? It is different, and great
fun. There is always something staggering to look at,
it's a veritable feast for the eyes.
Invisible-man rumpy pumpy would have been a curious
cinematic experience. Oh well. Perhaps there will be a
sequel...
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| From: |
Carl | Subject: | 2001-06-05 21:35:17 |
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