Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Paranormal Thriller, November 29, 2007
"The Invisible" was not a perfect film. I like its paranormal aspect in much the same way that I like the film The Covenant. David Goyer who directed "Zig Zag" in 2002 and "Blade: Trinity II" sits at the helm of this project. He keeps the pacing rolling. If you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, it's interesting to see how many of the plot details could have been handled in several ways and the choices he made as director. Probably the greatest star of the film is its cinematographer Gabriel Beristain who has shot "The Ring Two," "S.W.A.T.," and "Blade II." While there are some paranormal plot aspects that seem questionable, this remake of the Swedish thriller "Den Osynlige" holds up pretty well for me.
Justin Chatwin who has had parts in the films "Taking Lives" and "War of the Worlds" does a good job as the good-looking Nick Powell who want to go to school in London to study writing while his mother wants him to become a lawyer. Chatwin may not have the greatest depth as an actor, but he comes across warm and likeable in the film, despite the fact that he's making money by selling term papers. Margarita Levieva who was in the TV show "The Vanished" plays Annie Newton, a hard-edged girl who brawls her way through a difficult home life and puts her in league with some rowdy friends. Levieva did a nice job in this major role, showing depth between the violent temper and her softer feminine side. Marcia Gay Harden who won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Pollock" in 2000 and was nominated in the same category for "Mystic River" in 2003 plays Diane Powell, Nick's widowed mother whose business sense predominates over being emotionally sensitive. There was a great variety in her performance from the very tightly controlled confident woman to the grieving mother who breaks down in sobs at the lost of her son. Nick's best buddy is Pete played by Chris Marquette. Marquette plays a weak character that has a hard time standing up for himself and is often a victim. One of the most interesting parts is played by Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin who is currently the good looking vampire on TV's "Moonlight" and is also in "August Rush." As Annie's ex-con boyfriend and betrayer Marcus Bohem, he looks rough and acts solely for his own benefit. Given this, O'Loughlin still manages to bring a nicely varied performance to the screen that is interesting to watch, even when we don't like the character. I found the sweet touches like Nick being a pal to Annie's little brother to leave a smile, despite the bittersweet violence and outcome of the film. Overall, I found the film to have some excellent nuances that enhanced from watching it originally in the theatre and then on DVD. Enjoy!
|
|
|
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Hokey...or is it?, October 18, 2007
THE INVISIBLE, based on Mats Wahl's 'Den Osynlige', and as adapted for the screen by Mick Davis and Christine Roum, seems like a teenage horror/scary flick and while watching it the audience may wonder what the purpose of all of this teenage angst and anger and acting out is all about. But given the premise of the story - that there is a time before death when the spirit can see what is occurring as death approaches, sort of deja vu in reverse - there is food for thought. The rather pedestrian story becomes a stimulus for thought about the thin line between life and death.
Smart, rich kid Nick Powell (a convincing Justin Chatwin) makes up for his too early death loss of his father and his rigid mother (Marcia Gay Hardin) by selling his intelligence to his friends through pirated essays. In his school is a little gang of misfits lead by Annie (Margarita Levieva) and including Matty (Ryan Kennedy) and Dean (Andrew Francis) and Annie's sometime ex-con boyfriend Marcus (Alex O'Loughlin). Nick and his friend Pete (Chris Marquette) are the brunt of the little gang and in an unfortunate crime perpetrated by Annie, Pete, thinking Nick has escaped Seattle for writing school in London, uses 'Nick-as-informer' as a means to stop the gang's punishment of himself. Annie inadvertently 'murders' Nick and hides his body. But Nick is not dead: he roams the world quite invisibly, and follows the development of the lives of his friend and of Annie, discovering secrets about which he was ignorant. The sappy ending ties everything together far too neatly, but the getting there is made tolerable by some fine performances by Marcia Gay Harden, Callum Keith Rennie, and the two leads. Director David S. Goyer makes us feel he can't quite decide the genre of this story, but it feels aimed for the teenage set - until the adult viewer plugs in to some rather good ideas buried in the script. Not a movie to wait in line for, but not a bad film for all that. Grady Harp, October 07
|
|
|
20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Transparantly Bad, May 22, 2007
It's been said before, but I'm going to say it again: this movie is the pinnacle of false advertising. If you've seen the trailers, you know that one of the catchiest lines is, "How do you solve a murder when the victim ... is YOU?" Bum-ba-bum!
There is no murder. Furthermore, there is no mystery. What is there? Oh ho! Let me tell you.
***A HEADS-UP: I used to be a teenager, and although I know that the world has changed since I was navigating the rocky shores of puberty, I can still empathize and even relate to the emotional turbulence common among that time period. That having been said, I hope any teenage readers will take the following review with a grain of salt.***
"The Invisible" was designed solely to cater to an audience of young adults who feel that their personal melodramas are in some way unique to them. The movie is a vehicle for mawkish hamminess, an attempt to validate the confusing mental mess that results when a young person finds their biological engines suddenly flooded with a strange new hormonal fuel.
The story concerns two "invisible" teens. One of them, Nick Powell (played by an over-earnest Justin Chatwin), is a spoiled "misunderstood" genius who writes vacuous poetry and wants to make a living out of it. Without his mother's knowledge (his father is dead, giving him exclusive rights to be mopey), he purchases a ticket to London so that he might join a prestigious writing class. He is rather self-absorbed, but I say that like most poets aren't.
The other "invisible" teen is the weirdly mad Annie Newton (played unevenly by Margarita Levieva). Annie's mother is dead (a parallel!) and her father and step-mom are laughably bad parents. This makes her want to steal things and beat people up. She is misunderstood, too, you see (although I got the impression that, like most of us, she rather likes being misunderstood).
At this point, I do have to give the movie credit for not inlcuding the line "You don't know me!" or "You just don't understand!" anywhere in the script. Kudos!
Let's see. Oh, yes. Nick and Annie clash at school for a lot of "complicated" reasons, not the least of which being that Nick is egotistical and doesn't put up with Annie's disturbed-chick act (she wears all black and tries -- lamely -- to hide her good looks by wearing a skull cap for half of the film). One of Nick's "friends," Pete (perhaps the whiniest film character since Luke Skywalker), convices Annie that Nick is responsible for a recent snitching, and she responds by kicking Nick in the face several times. This puts him close to death. Close enough, that is, so that is soul leaves his body, but not the Earth.
This gives Nick the opportunity to wander around screaming at people and crying a lot. He also gets to go to class and hear all of his friends badmouth him since they don't know his spirit dwells among them. This also provides him with ample time to realize that his attacker, Annie, is really just a lonely, tortured, very sexy soul who dances moderately well. She also takes a very gratuitous shower, breaks into Nick's home and goes through his things, and manages to fool about twenty clueless cops. But she does it morosely and with a heafty dose of angst, so her actions endear Nick to Annie, you see, and I suppose they're supposed to endear her to us, as well.
Mix in an overwrought soundtrack that plays like an emotional scratch-n-sniff card, a pointless suicide scene, and a ludicrous implausibility involving what one can and cannot do after being shot in the stomach, and what you've got is a bloated metaphor about what it takes to be both accepted, loved, and a good person. Dripping with sweaty sentimentality and crippled by hammish histrionics, the movie's most insulting aspect is how excessively it tries to play to the hair-trigger emotions of a viewership that, presumably, is struggling with very real issues of growing up and self-realization. Instead of offering insights or even commiseration, this film serves up exorbitant passion and pretends like it's meaningful. I don't mind (and even get and enjoy) films that deal with the trials and tribulations of teens (Heathers, The Breakfast Club, American Pie, and even Gus Van Sant's sere and quiet Elephant) but I have no patience for a teen film that thinks it doesn't have to be smart or relevant or clever as long as it's moody and melodramatic. Bart Simpson once said that "Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel," but it doesn't take an adult to see straight through the manipulative mess of "The Invisible."
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|