Psychological thriller The Invisble Man takes the right direction
FILM REVIEW: THE INVISIBLE MAN (15), THE LIGHT CINEMA, WISBECH, OUT NOW.
STARS: ELISABETH MOSS, OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN, HARRIET DYER, ALDIS HODGE AND STORM REID.
RUNNING TIME: 2 HR 5 MINS, DIRECTOR: LEIGH WHANNELL.
Before watching the disappointing Steve Coogan film Greed at this same cinema a couple of weeks ago, I saw the trailer for The Invisible Man and immediately told my wife I'd like to see it.
I'd seen a TV series of the same name when I was a boy and was aware of a 1930s film, which this is loosely based on – and let's face it, the whole idea is fascinating and something most of us have thought about or discussed at some time or another.
The plot isn't exactly outside the box – a woman leaves her abusive husband in the middle of the night, he takes his own life but then she becomes targeted by an invisible attacker.
And this is is where the film takes the right road for me. There are no sexy shower scenes or voyeurism, Elisabeth Moss' portrayal as abuse victim Cecilia Kass shows a woman at the end of her wits and not a spied-on temptress and we are led into edge-of-your-seat suspense rather than cheap thrills.
You don't really get to see much of Oliver Jackson-Cohen's horror husband Adrian Griffin but the way he psychologically tortures his former partner is gripping and disturbing, as is the way her relationships with sister Emily (played by Harriet Dyer), single dad and friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid) is tested by her experiences.
This is the psychological thriller at its best and there are a couple of moments that hit you like a sledgehammer, parts of the act you just never saw coming.
Of course, if the plot is perfect, the action full of suspense from start to finish and the acting amazing, then the film will win multiple awards – and I doubt this will be the case with The Invisible Man.
After some amazing twists and turns, the final scene lets me down slightly, I find it veers away from how believable the rest of the script is. But not enough for me to say this isn't a cracking film, one that for all its fantasy, tells the story of an all too prevalent evil – that of domestic abuse.
Jeremy Ransome
Rating: 8/10
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