The Invisible (2007)

Director:

David S. Goyer

Writers (WGA):

Mick Davis (screenplay) and
Christine Roum (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 April 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Life, death and something in between.

Plot:

After an attack leaves him in limbo -- invisible to the living and also near death -- a teenager discovers the only person who might be able help him is his attacker.

Plot Keywords:

Limbo | High School | Airplane Ticket | Beating | Death

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Justin Chatwin	...	Nick Powell
Margarita Levieva	...	Annie Newton
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Diane Powell
Chris Marquette	...	Pete Egan
Alex O'Loughlin	...	Marcus Bohem
Callum Keith Rennie	...	Detective Brian Larson
Michelle Harrison	...	Detective Kate Tunney
Ryan Kennedy	...	Matty
Andrew Francis	...	Dean
P. Lynn Johnson	...	Sharon Egan
Serge Houde	...	Martin Egan
Desiree Zurowski	...	Lindy Newton
Mark Houghton	...	Jack Newton
Alex Ferris	...	Victor Newton
Tania Saulnier	...	Suzie

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, criminality, sensuality and language - all involving teens.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Ontario) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42920) | Germany:12 | UK:12A | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Singapore:NC-16 | Malaysia:18PL | Australia:M | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-13 | Iceland:14

Filming Locations:

Burnaby Mountain Secondary School, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Trivia:

The shirt that Nick is wearing at the end of the movie bears a crow on the chest. In some Native American legends (and the graphic novel by James O'Barr bearing the name) the crow could carry a person's soul back from the land of the dead.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Nick writes "HEY ANNIE" on the model plane at the end, the plane is shown flying around but there is no writing visible on the wing.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Diane Powell: It wasn't easy when Nick's father died, raising a teenager alone. But with a boy like Nick, well, he is now everything a mother could want. We've been through some hard times. We've carried each other. Now I look to the future, and I know there's nothing that we can't do together.

Movie Connections:

References "Sesame Street" (1969)

Soundtrack:

Under Pressure

Intriguing Premise Completely Wasted

While the idea of having someone linger between life and death, invisible to the world at large, is intriguing, it gets lost in a confusing morass of a script here. "The Invisible" features one of those stereotypical small female "tough guys" who are somehow capable of not only ordering larger males around to do their bidding, but also to physically intimidate and beat them up. Wow- we've never seen anything like that before from Hollywood! Annie, the tough high school girl who always wears a stocking cap on her pretty little head, is evidently the leader of a ridiculous "gang," which consists of three other males. Two of them are fellow students, who somehow obey her orders (why?) The other is an adult, her boyfriend, who is on probation and obviously has a criminal past. Annie is mad- you know, the teen angst we've seen from Hollywood ever since "Rebel Without A Cause." The only rationale behind her anger, and subsequent life of crime, is that her mother died. Her father is shown only as a laborer who works nights; he doesn't seem to be a bad guy, but Annie tells him at one point that she plans to come back and kill him. Huh? Motive? Yes, her stepmother seems irresponsible, and doesn't appear to be parenting Annie's younger brother properly, but really there is nothing in her home life to justify her perpetual, Brando-like sneer, or the crimes she commits.

There are so many absurd scenes in this film. How about the cops who question Annie, after they've found stolen jewelry in her locker? Annie treats the cops with disdain, as she does everyone, and is totally fearless under their questioning. This questioning is almost nonexistent, and after a few softballs, she simply walks out. Huh? Why wasn't she charged with anything? If she was, how did she get out? Did her incredibly poor family place bail somehow? Then there is the male cop questioning Annie's adult boyfriend. This cop doesn't even touch on the issue of statutory rape. He doesn't realize that this boyfriend, who is obviously an adult (probably at least 25), is engaged in an illegal relationship with this underage high school girl? Nope- nothing said about that, just more typical Hollywood cop mumbo-jumbo. Later, Annie will overpower this much larger, criminal adult boyfriend, while he is armed, and then make a few amazing, superhero type jumps as a slew of police officers simply watch her passively, refusing to chase her at all. One of the most ridiculous scenes I've ever seen in any film.

Of all the odious messages "The Invisible" sends the audience, the most twisted is the tired old bad girl is actually good at heart nonsense. This used to be a staple of film scripts, but almost always with the bad character being the bad boy, who somehow attracts the sweet heroine away from the boring boy next door. No telling how many girls absorbed that disastrous message and left a nice guy for some future alcoholic- wife beater, because Hollywood basically told them it was the "cool" thing to do. Anyhow, Annie is shown to be actually a good kid at heart, even if she is behind the attempted murder of the main character, who inexplicably ends up loving her anyway. She also kills her boyfriend, tries to kill the main characters best friend, and commits several other crimes. But, she does have a soft spot for her kid brother, so how could we not fall in love with her? Finally, the movie climaxes with a totally unexplained and absurd gimmick whereby Annie is the only one who can bring the hero Nick back to life. This is done by her talking to him as he lays unconscious in a hospital bed, and then laying down next to him and bleeding all over him (she had been shot earlier by her boyfriend, but seeing as how she is so tough and all, Annie is able to walk around for hours, and even evade the police during a tired, hackneyed car chase scene, with a gunshot wound to her abdomen). Yes, this makes perfect sense. Of course, how else could the hero be saved? Overall, this is an unoriginal, horrible film.