Scan and Pan
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
The Invisible
Nick (Justin Chatwin) is a quiet, intelligent high school student who aspires to be a writer. While trying to help his best friend Pete (Chris Marquette), he comes into conflict with another student, the violent criminal Annie (Margarita Levieva). After Annie is arrested, she suspects that it was Pete who turned her in. In fear for his life, Pete blames Nick (however, both Pete and Nick are innocent), and Annie and her thuggish friends decide to beat him up. Annie goes too far, and Nick's body is left in a drainage pipe in the woods. When Nick goes to school the next day, he quickly discovers that no one can see or hear him, and he must somehow solve the mystery of what's happened to him.
Director David S. Goyer (co-writer of Batman Begins and writer/director of Blade: Trinity) takes a very low key approach to the story, favoring characterization over spectacle. Like the film it's a remake of, it's based on a novel by Mats Wahl, and the screenplay by Mick Davis (who also wrote the screenplay for the original film) and Christine Roum (Bodyguard II) is unusually intelligent for a supernatural story centered on teenagers and works quite well as a metaphor about guilt and redemption, with an emotionally satisfying payoff at the end. The original film reportedly has a much darker ending, but the ending here finds a note of hope without cheapening what came before it.
The film is set in Washington State but filmed in British Columbia, and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (Blade: Trinity, The Ring Two) contributes a moody, overcast look that sets an appropriate tone for the story, matched by the score of Marco Beltrami (Hellboy, Underworld: Evolution) and an excellent selection of alternative rock songs chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas.
Chatwin makes a good lead for the film and is very realistic as a young man suddenly faced with a mystery with literal life or death consequences for him. Levieva, who resembles a younger Eliza Dushku, steals the film with a compelling performance as a tough but achingly vulnerable young woman who has one chance for atonement. Marquette is good as Pete, whose fear-caused actions inadvertently have tragic consequences. Marcia Gay Harden plays Nick's mother and has one emotionally wrenching scene that completely sells her as a grieving mother. Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin (who was considered for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale) has the least original role as Annie's thuggish boyfriend and partner in crime, but he avoids overacting and makes the character at least seem believable. Callum Keith Rennie and Michelle Harrison are solid as the detectives investigating Nick's disappearance.
Studios often dump their weaker films in cinemas in the springtime to bide time for the big summer season. The Invisible very easily could have been one of those weaker films, another routine supernatural film with teenaged protagonists, but it's not. It's a good film, well-written and well-acted, and one that deserves to be very visible to filmgoers. Recommended.
[4 out of 5 stars]
This American remake of the 2002 Swedish film Den Osynlige is an intelligent supernatural mystery with noirish undertones.
Nick (Justin Chatwin) is a quiet, intelligent high school student who aspires to be a writer. While trying to help his best friend Pete (Chris Marquette), he comes into conflict with another student, the violent criminal Annie (Margarita Levieva). After Annie is arrested, she suspects that it was Pete who turned her in. In fear for his life, Pete blames Nick (however, both Pete and Nick are innocent), and Annie and her thuggish friends decide to beat him up. Annie goes too far, and Nick's body is left in a drainage pipe in the woods. When Nick goes to school the next day, he quickly discovers that no one can see or hear him, and he must somehow solve the mystery of what's happened to him.
Director David S. Goyer (co-writer of Batman Begins and writer/director of Blade: Trinity) takes a very low key approach to the story, favoring characterization over spectacle. Like the film it's a remake of, it's based on a novel by Mats Wahl, and the screenplay by Mick Davis (who also wrote the screenplay for the original film) and Christine Roum (Bodyguard II) is unusually intelligent for a supernatural story centered on teenagers and works quite well as a metaphor about guilt and redemption, with an emotionally satisfying payoff at the end. The original film reportedly has a much darker ending, but the ending here finds a note of hope without cheapening what came before it.
The film is set in Washington State but filmed in British Columbia, and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (Blade: Trinity, The Ring Two) contributes a moody, overcast look that sets an appropriate tone for the story, matched by the score of Marco Beltrami (Hellboy, Underworld: Evolution) and an excellent selection of alternative rock songs chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas.
Chatwin makes a good lead for the film and is very realistic as a young man suddenly faced with a mystery with literal life or death consequences for him. Levieva, who resembles a younger Eliza Dushku, steals the film with a compelling performance as a tough but achingly vulnerable young woman who has one chance for atonement. Marquette is good as Pete, whose fear-caused actions inadvertently have tragic consequences. Marcia Gay Harden plays Nick's mother and has one emotionally wrenching scene that completely sells her as a grieving mother. Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin (who was considered for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale) has the least original role as Annie's thuggish boyfriend and partner in crime, but he avoids overacting and makes the character at least seem believable. Callum Keith Rennie and Michelle Harrison are solid as the detectives investigating Nick's disappearance.
Studios often dump their weaker films in cinemas in the springtime to bide time for the big summer season. The Invisible very easily could have been one of those weaker films, another routine supernatural film with teenaged protagonists, but it's not. It's a good film, well-written and well-acted, and one that deserves to be very visible to filmgoers. Recommended.
[4 out of 5 stars]
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