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Movie Review: The Invisible Man

Mike Tyrkus
The Invisible Man Elizabeth Moss

Elisabeth Moss in "The Invisible Man." Photo by Universal Pictures - © 2020 Universal Pictures Titles: The Invisible Man People: Elisabeth Moss Photo by Universal Pictures - © 2020 Universal Pictures

The latest attempt to bring classic monsters from the Universal canon to bring them into modern cinema, The Invisible Man is an occasionally effective, but nevertheless disappointing return on investment. Despite starting out very strong with a superlative performance from Elisabeth Moss, the film loses its way near the half-way point and becomes a standard cat-and-mouse revenge tale.

Cecilia Kass (Moss) is trapped in a relationship with an abusive sociopath (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who also happens to be a brilliant scientist. When she finally gathers the courage to leave him, he appears to use a new ability he has discovered—invisibility—to hunt her down and claim him as her property. While those around her question her sanity, Cecilia must protect herself and those closest to her before it is too late.

Director Leigh Whannell, whose previous directing credits include the dreadful Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and the slightly less awful Upgrade (2018), does a decent enough job setting up the premise of the film. But, an interesting psychological drama quickly turns into a schlocky horror film that is dependent on jump scares and loud music cues to illicit the desired reaction. Whannell, who also penned the screenplay, adds very little to the horror genre with this effort and it feels as though it is specifically designed to please the crowd with a cathartic resolution of poor Cecilia’s relationship woes rather that a well-thought our or executed story.

Jackson-Cohen is woefully underplayed as a villain throughout, turning psychotic seemingly on a whim. Again, the first half of the film plays far more effectively than the second as Cecilia’s emotional state is set up and her well-laid out plan of escape is executed, and then ultimately fails. But, the shifting to the Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) storyline simply isn’t handled as seamlessly as it needs to be to make The Invisible Man the cathartic release of girl-power that it wants so desperately to be.

While The Invisible Man may be an effective enough thriller for some, and may even warrant talk of comparisons to the strong female heroines of the films of, for example, James Cameron, in some circles, this particular Universal Monster remake feels forced and very much dead on arrival.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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