ebastian Caine (Bacon) is a genius, and he knows it. His brilliant insight has solved the riddle of making a gorilla invisible, then visible again, without killing it. In their top-secret underground lab in Washington, D.C., Sebastian and his team inject the gorilla with an irradiated serum. The team--which includes his former lover, Linda McKay (Shue), and Linda's secret paramour, Matt Kensington (Brolin)--watches in awe as the invisible ape reappears: veins, then heart, then skeleton, then organs, then musculature.
Celebrating at the Old Ebbitt Grill, Sebastian is troubled. He still carries a torch for Linda, although she has no illusions about their breakup. "We were great," he says. She replies, "You were great. I was just standing next to you."
But Sebastian's also worried about the end of his project. At a meeting with the sponsoring Pentagon committee, he lies and says they haven't yet solved the problem of invisibility. "I wasn't ready for them to know," Sebastian arrogantly tells the enraged Linda and Matt. "This isn't about following the rules. It's about seizing the moment."
It becomes clear what Sebastian means: He wants to be the first human to experience invisibility. The next day, Sebastian orders his team to inject him. He writhes in agony as he fades from view. Then, the exhilaration of success is replaced by horror as the team realizes it can't bring Sebastian back. He must remain invisible as they scramble to find a cure. Linda and Matt make Sebastian a latex mask to wear while they work.
But as days turn to weeks, Sebastian begins to test the power of his new "gift," as he calls it. He fondles a co-worker while she sleeps. Later, in a fit of cabin fever, he escapes the lab, returns to his apartment--and pays a terrifying visit to a comely neighbor.
Linda and Matt begin to suspect that Sebastian is up to no good. But he spies on them as they prepare to tell his secret to the Pentagon committee. And he resolves to punish his former teammates for betraying him, with violent consequences.
No characterization, only mayhem
Hollow Man is the latest SF opus from director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers). And, like those earlier movies, Hollow Man serves up dazzling special effects and a tantalizing premise. But, due to a lackluster script, perfunctory performances and abundant SF clichés, the film ultimately comes up as empty as Sebastian Caine's latex mask.
Verhoeven has raised the bar for visual effects. The vanishing sequence treats the audience to the image of Kevin Bacon disappearing in anatomic layers as he thrashes on a gurney. Over the course of the movie, the audience also sees what an invisible man looks like coated in rain, steam, water, blood and fire. And there are no hokey floating pencils or half-digested food.
But that's as far as the originality goes. The script is a well-worn tale of arrogance and the corruptibility of absolute power. The dialogue is trite--at various points, Sebastian actually says, "I am a goddamn genius" and "I should probably call the Nobel committee and tell them to get our prize ready." Moreover, the movie squanders its premise. Far from exploring the intoxicating power of invisibility, the movie chooses mainly to have Sebastian peep at naked women, scare little kids and skulk around after his old girlfriend.
Bacon, an otherwise talented character actor, chews the scenery as the mad scientist when he's not standing in for the special effects. (In his defense, he reportedly spent hours covered in body paint and/or ghastly latex suits; it's a miracle he came up with any characterization at all.) Oscar nominee Shue seems ill suited to her role, and her performance both as a brilliant scientist and as randy girlfriend is stiff and unconvincing.
Verhoeven seems better at directing explosions and chases than character interactions. The obligatory scene in which the imperiled team members realize their plight is laughably over the top. As the mayhem begins in earnest in the last act, the movie disintegrates into a series of gratuitously violent slayings--another Verhoeven trademark--and some nifty stunts.
