Hollow Man (2000) review

12. Hollow Man (2000)

Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

Produced by: Douglas Wick, Alan Marshall

Screenplay by: Andrew W. Marlowe

Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens, Greg Grunberg, Joey Slotnick, Mary Randle, William Devane

There was a period between the late 1980s and late 1990s where director Paul Verhoeven was one of the most popular filmmakers out there, churning out graphic, violent, clever, big-budget blockbusters like “RoboCop,” “Total Recall” and “Basic Instinct.” Even the ones that weren’t exactly hits like “Showgirls” and “Starship Troopers” have dedicated fan bases. But the one that seemed to mark the end of his run as a Hollywood powerhouse was “Hollow Man,” one of the only movies that could qualify as an adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The Invisible Man, although it more takes inspiration than truly adapt the story. It’s about a scientist named Sebastian Cane (Kevin Bacon) who takes a serum to become invisible, but is then unable to reappear, and the prolonged effects cause his mind to deteriorate until he goes insane. This is a movie that really got shredded by critics, and although the story is somewhat bloated, I think the terrific special effects and lead performance by Kevin Bacon helps offset the flaws.

Sebastian leads a U.S. military project, developing a serum that can make the subject invisible; having already completed testing on laboratory animals, he ambitiously encourages his team to go ahead with human testing without authorization, using himself as the test subject. Sebastian is successfully turned invisible, but when the time comes to bring him back, it fails, and he almost dies in the process. As the days pass and he’s kept in isolation at the facility undergoing constant testing looking for a cure, Sebastian—already shown to be arrogant and mischievous—becomes more restless and temperamental, frequently lashing out at his team, which includes his ex-girlfriend Linda (Elisabeth Shue) and her yet-unknown boyfriend Matt (Josh Brolin). His behavior continues to unravel, as he frequently sneaks out of the lab and commits criminal acts, reveling in his newfound power until his team is forced to stop him, before he takes out his new megalomaniacal urges on all of them.

I feel like Bacon is one of those actors that’s easily recognizable yet also taken for granted, because he always seems to turn in a perfectly charismatic and layered performance but has never even been nominated for an Oscar. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s award-worthy as Sebastian, but he does a great job at making him both initially sympathetic but also smarmy in a way that makes you believe that he would go off the deep end if given abilities like this. His activities start off innocuous, such as moving soda cans around and blowing in people’s ears, but quickly become perverse as it portrays the horrors of what someone may do if nobody could see them; for a womanizing, narcissistic shit like Sebastian, let’s just say he takes full advantage of it, and it results in some decent suspense, as characters frequently refrain themselves for fear of him listening unseen.

One way this film differentiates is the method of turning its subject invisible. In the Universal classic “The Invisible Man,” the titular character is already invisible, and in its many sequels, we see the process in simple cross dissolves, but here we watch the entire grisly affair: skin, muscle and bone. Various filmmaking techniques were used for this, such as creating an anatomically correct computer 3-D model of Bacon’s body, and digitally removed suits. But aside from just how cool the visuals are—which earned visual effects supervisor Craig Hayes an Oscar nomination—the movie brings up aspects you wouldn’t think about, such as not being able to sleep due to seeing through your own invisible eyelids and being stuck in a perpetually bright environment, or how excruciatingly painful it must be, to have your own body essentially ripped from existence. Things like this help give the movie some gravitas and remind you that what Sebastian experiences is horrible, even though it doesn’t excuse the depths he sinks to.

With that said, however, I think the actual extent of Sebastian’s downfall is a little overblown; some scenes feel unnecessary, like when Linda and Matt attempt to shut down the project by going to see Dr. Kramer (William Devane), Sebastian’s mentor who heads the oversight committee, and he kills him to keep the Army from finding out. By now, he already knows that everyone’s turned against him, so this doesn’t really add anything; and the over-the-top nature continues throughout the climax. While I like the various tools the characters use to find hm such as fire extinguishers to reveal his silhouette and dropping bags of blood along the floor to reveal his footprints, it just reaches a point where you wonder how on Earth he’s surviving all of this. Also, the dialogue gets really hammy; for a movie that tries to take this concept seriously, the third act really takes a hard left into cartoonish territory, entertaining for a while but eventually overstaying its welcome.

“Hollow Man” is a tough movie to describe, because while there are moments of intelligence and wit, there are also moments of frustrating banality; at some point, Sebastian stops being an interesting character and just becomes a plot device. Thankfully, the action is carried out well otherwise by Elisabeth Shue as Linda and Josh Brolin as Matt; this came out during the latter’s down years, while the former has some spicy and feisty lines and mannerisms, proving a smart and likeable foil to Sebastian. So while this movie was a box office hit, it’s sort of fallen through the cracks in the years since, and Verhoeven himself has expressed disappointment, with this being his last major Hollywood film. I don’t think it’s a bad movie, but I do believe the build-up and intrigue are let down by the story; however, for what it gets right, I would recommend it, but if you’re looking for something with a much better conflict involving an invisible character, watch the 2020 Blumhouse remake.

My rating: 6.5/10