The Invisible was a little flick that came out early in the year (2007). It looked a little bit interesting to me but was completely ignored and panned by critics. Neither of which were enough to dissuade my curiosity. There’s a whole genre of forgettable teen-marketed sci-fi movies, movies like Butterfly Effect, that seem unappreciated by everyone but me.

The director is the unspectacular but not quite deserving of derision David S. Goyer. The plot involves a teenage boy Nick (played by Justin Chatwin, who I harbor found memories of from War of the Worlds) who gets himself killed by the wrong crowd at school. It’s partly a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and partly the fault of his wussy best friend Pete (played by the very deserving of derision Chris Marquette). Since he’s in a movie he doesn’t just die and rot in the ground but instead his “soul” wanders the earth non corporeally. He attempts to avenge his death but it’s not easy because he can’t communicate with any of the living. Since he doesn’t have the ability to actually affect any change it’s sort of a futile effort. Our protagonist Nick spends most of the running time of this movie a) watching his wussy friend Pete cry like a little bitch. b)falling in love with his troubled but attractive murderer and c) screaming a his loved ones who hilariously ignore him.

In these post- Donnie Darko days it’s a necessity for teenage dramas to impress us with how sensitive and brooding their male leads are. We know that Nick is sensitive and brooding because in poetry class he reads his poem in a deep sincere voice. It’s obvious that he’s the best poet in poetry class, much better than the dumb jock who read his poem which wasn’t at all deep or sensitive (spoiler: later on when he’s the titular invisible the class talks about how he’s a pretentious dick). Later on he he tells a young lady that she’s “broken”.
But all that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like the character, just that the film over impressed me with the fact that he’s sensitive. Nick is well played well by Chatwin, who sells the intensity and desperation of the part.
But my favorite character was the trouble girl Annie, played by Margarita Levieva as the “love interest”. This part is not at all what you would expect of the female love interest in a high school melodrama. Annie is a genuinely troubled tough girl who finds herself in over her head. Levieva (an actress I wasn’t at all familiar with) makes the character work not by selling her as a believable bad ass (she’s way too pretty for that) but makes her a truly original creation. Most films don’t really let their protagonists do something truly immoral (see Road to Perdition. see A History of Violence). That’s why I really appreciate the subtle not at all heavy handed way the Invisible turns Annie into the protagonist in the second act. It’s a great performance and a great character.

One of the film’s strengths is also one of it’s most prominent weakness. Goyer gives us a cool take on the afterlife that’s a creative alternative to ghosts who can walk through walls and have superpowers. Nick can interact with stuff; he gets hit by cars and throws stuff across the room when he gets mad like all movie characters but it just doesn’t take. Maybe magic puts everything back before anyone notices, or maybe it’s Nick just tricking himself into thinking he’s throwing stuff across the room. Or maybe they wanted him to walk through walls but they ran over budget. Whatever the reason I appreciate a story that has the tenacity to play by it’s own rules instead of inventing some convoluted loop hole (see Ghost. see Invisible Dad). In my opinion it’s cheating to tell us that ghost are intangible only to let them off the hook later by letting them move shit around with their minds. That’s a pet peeve of mine so I’m glad this one didn’t do that. There are a few times in the story where he thinks someone might be able to hear or see him but it’s played ambiguous.
But the flip side of that is that our protagonist has no ability to alter the course of the story. Consequently The Invisibles has a troubled second act.
I was pretty much loving this film until the very end when the movie derails. There’s a scene at the end in a hospital that’s awkward and schmaltzy and throws all the rules out the window. It’s also the films low point.
Goyer is most famous for writing comic book movies and those films invariably suffer from bad third acts. It seems like people don’t know how to end their films anymore. Still I enjoyed the characters and was interested in the story. Everyone should help deliver this movie from obscurity.

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