This was the first film I have seen this year. Unfortunately the ones I am anticipating most won’t be coming to theaters anytime soon because of what’s happening. Nevertheless I am glad I watched something this year.
I first discovered Leigh Whannell through Upgrade, a film that I found surprisingly underwhelming. After doing some research, I found out that he also wrote and co-wrote such films as Insidious & Saw. The only thing that made me interested in this film was Elizabeth Moss, who is a very talented actress. So what were my thoughts? In order to answer that I will discuss what worked and what didn’t. There will be spoilers
Something that I will acknowledge from Whannell is that The Invisible Man is a very good looking film. The colors on some occasions blend very well, and there is a clearness that is maintained through out each scene. The lighting also worked really well to the directors advantage. Overall, Elizabeth Moss gives a great performance. The material given to her might not have been the best, but she still did a fine job. You understand her situation and you empathize with her. Moss gives quiet nuances that enhance her performance greatly. Whannell was able to use the room in which we were viewing the main character, to it’s potential. It was subtle, but able to create incredible tension. Those moments were the best in the entire film.
Now here are my main problems. Earlier I said that there was incredible moments of tension. That is still true. But the payoff was awful. There is a scene where Cecilia is fighting this invisible man and he just tosses her around like she’s a sack a flowers. He picks her up by her neck. It was as if he had super strength which is completely ridiculous. A scene near the end of the film features Cecilia trying to fight of the invisible man in a mental hospital, while he picks off every single security guard in sight. This seen is laughably terrible. It’s still a human being in this invisible costume how does that work? We are also watching the usual horror cheese and cliches. The dialogue is half-baked. The supporting cast, thankfully the few of them, are pretty run-of-the-mill and annoying. The score is over bearing, and ruins the tension that had been building. It also makes for a few serious sequences to be painfully overdramatic.
I feel very conflicted when I think of this movie. There are things that I really liked, but also things that were horribly executed that I cannot deny. Overall The Invisible Man contains some interesting ideas and dives into past and abusive relationships. It has a great female lead performance, amazing tension and beautiful cinematography. Sadly it’s weighed down by an overblown score, bad dialogue, bloated runtime, and multiple deliveries of bad payoffs. I’m not gonna dismiss Leigh Whannel as a bad director, I actually think the opposite. I will be keeping my eye on his future projects.
Cedric Cinema 