Sometimes I watch movies. And sometimes no-one else has noded them first. And then I have a compulsion to node them. I'm sorry.
How do you solve a murder when the victim is you?
The Invisible
April 27th, 2007
Director: David S. Goyer
Genre: Crime/Drama/Science fiction
People you might know:
Justin Chatwin (the "dead" star!)
Margarita Levieva (The living star!)
Marcia Gay Harden
Chris Marquette
Alex O'Loughlin
Callum Keith Rennie
Michelle Harrison
Ryan Kennedy
Andrew Francis
Life, death and something in between.
So, if you've seen the previews, you know the basic plot. Some teenager is knocked unconscious and left for dead, and his 'ghost' is wandering around trying to get someone to discover his body, but he doesn't seem to have any way to communicate with the living. There's a bit more to the movie, of course...
Nick Powell is a confident and smart teenager to is dissatisfied with his home life. His mother is distant, his father is dead, and he wants to go to a writing school that his mother doesn't approve of at all. He's a bit angsty, but the real teenage angst comes from Annie Newton, a high-school thug and small-time crook. Nick and his friend Pete Egan accidentally anger Annie, and when Annie's life falls apart, she blames Pete, who blames Nick. Annie beats up Nick and leaves him for dead.
Together they must solve his murder... Before it's too late.
Nick comes back as a 'ghost', but he shortly realizes that he's not really dead, but is having an out of body experience (he realizes this when he sees a bird fly into a window, and watches as a 'ghost bird' joins him briefly before the bird regains consciousness and flies off). He realizes that he must alert people to find his body, but he can't interact permanently with the physical world. Any time he moves or interacts with objects they magically realign themselves to their original positions within a couple of seconds.
After this point more details would be spoilers, but suffice to say, there is angst, and rather funny (yet strangely boring) sequence of events, and lots and lots of drama. I will tell you that this is not a happy movie or a funny movie, or a 'high school' movie, or a ghost movie. It's just a weird drama with an extended out of body experience added into the mix.
So... now that I've given you the basics, allow me to trash the movie. I didn't like this movie because I don't like angsty dramas. You might very well like such films, and I can't blame you for that. But I will add that the director is horrible. The lighting is sharp and glaring in an attempt to be dramatic, and the camera angles are weird and irregular. The script is okay, but really, nothing special. The whole thing seems to be trying to set a mood (the mood is 'dark and angsty', in case you missed that), and if you aren't tuned into that vibe, the movie is a washout.
Having seen the movie, I am not planning to watch the original Swedish film Den Osynlige, upon which The Invisible is based. I also don't plan on reading the book (also named Den Osynlige) that preceded the original movie, although I expect it might be better. I would not pursue them even if I understood Swedish.
This film's Tem42 rating is 2/10, meaning that I actually bothered to follow the plot, but I did not enjoy it at all. And if you disagree, we need you to post your own review of the movie, explaining why.