The Invisible ManStarring: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Directed By: Leigh Whannell
Rated: R
Maybe it’s the winter slog or post-awards season dead zone, but February was a deeply disappointing month for good movies. After hearing rave reviews for The Invisible Man, I went to go see it on Leap Day. Why not? Anything can happen on Leap Day! Maybe even a good movie in February 2020? Or maybe not. After walking out of The Invisible Man, I found myself baffled by the rave reviews and saddened that I spent my Leap Day watching this.
The Invisible Man follows the story of Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), a woman who escapes a traumatic relationship with her abusive boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Shortly after her escape, Adrian commits suicide. After his death, Cecilia notices strange occurrences that are reminiscent of his abusive behavior. She is convinced that he is still alive and stalking her, but no one believes her.
First off, let me say that I appreciate the overarching theme the film is trying to convey about the terror of domestic abuse. Cecilia’s fear and pain are devastating to watch on screen, and it serves as a more significant metaphor for what millions of women deal with every day (whether it be physical or verbal abuse.) If you take anything away from this movie, let it be that we have to listen to victims when they’re trying to speak up about what has happened to them. Dealing with abuse is always a tricky thing in a film because it’s such a brutal topic. Just know that the film could be very upsetting for some people to watch.
While I appreciate the script is trying to bring awareness to the horrors of abuse, there are a lot of missteps that left me with immediate questions. First of all, …what genre is this movie? Is it sci-fi? Suspense? Horror? Good movies can mix genres, but The Invisible Man jumps drastically into different genres throughout each act, and these aren’t seamless jumps. One minute it feels like I’m watching an emotional suspense movie, and the next, it’s a high-tech sci-fi thriller. Sometimes, you have to pick a lane.
Now I’m going to get to my nit-picky questions because my Leap Day was wasted watching this.
What was Cecilia’s relationship with James and Sydney, the family she lives with for the majority of the movie? They’re very close, but we never get a sense of how they know each other.
Why does she sleep in the same bed as Sydney, James’s teenaged daughter? That seems very odd.
What is the invisible man suit made of? I need a better explanation than “it has miniature cameras.” A lot of things have miniature cameras on them. That doesn’t mean they’re invisible.
Why is the third act filled with more plot twists and melodrama than one season of General Hospital? I have several more in-depth questions, but they will give away spoilers.
The plot takes some drastically wild turns, yet the pacing can be painfully slow at times. It’s like Leigh Whannell took way too much time building up the story to let the third act go entirely off the rails. Whannell could have easily trimmed 30 minutes off the runtime to make it much neater. I would have been okay seeing one or two fewer scenes with people talking to doorways and fighting the air, but that’s just me. If you love watching people fight with the air and being drug across the room by nothing, you’re going to love this.
There is a sense of tension to The Invisible Man considering you never know where he’ll attack. No one believes that Adrian is stalking Cecilia and that she is creating all of the chaos that he inflicts. This creates a deep sense of conflict as everyone in her life begins to pull away from her, thinking that she’s crazy. The stakes ramp up in every scene as you know that he will continue to make things worse for her.
Elisabeth Moss gives an emotionally raw performance as Cecilia fighting for the truth when everyone thinks she’s gone crazy. She’s been abused, gaslighted, and torn apart by a man who excels at manipulation. As a viewer, we’re on her side, but it’s easy to see how others would think she’s slowly descending into madness.
Photo Belongs to Universal Pictures
On a technical level, this was a very frustrating movie to watch. The lighting is terrible. In some scenes, I could barely see what was going on, and in others, it’s painfully bleak. The sound editing is downright obnoxious. Half of the scenes go silent, and then the sound turns up to the loudest possible volume to be used as a jump scare. Using music as a scare tactic can be done quite effectively in a film like A Quiet Place because it’s part of the story, but here it feels like a half-hearted attempt to scare the audience into jumping out of their seats.
Clearly I’m one of the few who feels this way because it’s getting rave reviews, but this movie didn’t work for me at all. The Invisible Man tries to act as a metaphor for the horrors of abuse. However, its ridiculous script and bonkers plot twists make for a mess of a movie.
My Rating: 4/10