Susan Granger’s review of “HOLLOW MAN” (Columbia Pictures)
The concept of invisibility has intrigued man for centuries. Plato wrote that an invisible person would become intoxicated with the power and abuse it simply because he could get away with it. Plato suggested that he would steal, rape and kill because there is no central moral code inside us that leads us to being good and just. Now, director Paul Verhoeven, working with writer Andrew Marlowe, turns that idea into a suspense thriller, starring Kevin Bacon (“Stir of Echoes”) as a brilliant but arrogant scientist who develops an invisibility serum as part of a top-secret U.S. government research project and, defying Pentagon orders, he experiments on himself. It begins with bio-phase shifting, lifting him out of the visible spectrum layer by layer. As the radiated fluid enters his system, flesh seems to liquefy. Then the muscular system dissolves, leaving a skeleton with major organs. Then that goes. But there’s a problem: the procedure cannot be reversed, although his colleagues (Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin) work on an antidote. In the meantime, Bacon’s transformation results in an orgy of selfish pleasure and power since he can operate with all societal constraints lifted. So much for the sci-fi plot which is soon discarded in favor of murder, mayhem and horror. Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven has created some of Hollywood’s most controversial films: “Basic Instinct,” “RoboCop,” “Starship Troopers” and “Showgirls.” Verhoeven obviously delights in disturbing audiences, yet if his challenge in “Hollow Man” was to make the drama as interesting as the mind-boggling digital special effects, he fails because Bacon becomes a mad, evil, puppy-bashing monster. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Hollow Man” is a repulsive, repugnant 3. Remember, hollow means depressed and empty.
