Grade: B+
Being an invisible person is an interesting thought. If you truly don’t want to be seen, you have to walk around naked everywhere. Imagine being naked, not to mention barefoot, outside in all kinds of weather and seasons. Do you eat, sleep, or have to have biology breaks? Are the things that come out of you invisible too? If you’re trying to terrorize somebody, you have to remember to be perfectly quiet. What if you sneeze or fart? That would make for an amusing bit in a Scary Movie-type Invisible Man parody. “[Brrraaapppp.] Excuse me. Oh whoopsie, I’m not supposed to be speaking. I’m trying to scare you here.” It raises some questions, some of which get acknowledged and answered in the new remake of The Invisible Man, which opened today.
Writer/director Leigh Whannell was a producer and actor in the Saw movies, and directed Insidious: Chapter 3. His horror resume is put to effective use here. This is a fun, cool cinematic experience with likable authentic characters, with emotionally charged intentions that always feel based in reality. I wanted to give this a higher grade. Much of the film deserved it. Whannell does not work with a cookie cutter. He knows how to inspire intense dread, and often bringing moments of humor. You have to laugh at the heroine nervously looking around, as if she’s going to see the invisible man. When she’s sitting alone at a table for two at a crowded restaurant, she stares at the seat across from her, looking for little butt cheek impressions in the cushion – wondering if a plus one has joined her. And then there’s the “you can’t face yourself alone” sign.
The lead actress is Elisabeth Moss, from Us, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Girl, Interrupted. For the kind of movie this is, it’s a perfect performance. The film begins with her leaving her boyfriend in the middle of the night. We don’t see much of him in the movie, no pun intended, but we assume he is abusive. Two weeks later, she hears that he has taken his life, and shortly after, she is stalked, gaslighted, and made to look crazy by an invisible presence, with methods that only he could have come up with. Where the air goes out of the balloon a little bit, and the test tubes threaten to shatter is when the film gets too clever for its own good. Audiences will have to break up into individual discussion groups to work through the confusion of who did what, and why, and how. I am not sure that everything holds up. The final twist is deliciously macabre, and I loved it. This is the kind of movie that will shame most of the others of its genre this year.
Grade: B+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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