Director Lasse Hallström is known primarily at this point for heart-tugging films aimed squarely at American audiences. His next big U.S. release, “Safe Haven,” is, like his earlier “Dear John,” a Nicholas Sparks adaptation—not exactly the mark of someone interested in gritty foreign fare.
But Hallström has also made his first Swedish film in a quarter-century and, surprisingly, it’s an occasionally blood-soaked thriller. “The Hypnotist” is Sweden’s entry in the Oscars’ foreign film sweepstakes—and Hallström’s bid at not being typed, as he explained after TheWrap’s screening of the film Wednesday night at the Landmark Theatre.
“I wanted to show another side,” he told TheWrap’s editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman and a capacity crowd curious to see the filmmaker’s break from form.