The Invisible Man has been re-imagined for the big screen once again. This time, his 2020 emergence if written and directed by Leigh Whannell. It is loosely based on the original novel by H.G. Wells. Loosely here really means loosely. Elisabeth Moss stars in the lead role as Cecilia Kass, the abused girlfriend super rich and inventive Adrian Griffin, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, and Michael Dorman are also included in part of the cast.
At the beginning of the movie, Cecilia Kass makes a break for it and leaves her controlling boyfriend with the help of her sister. After a couple of weeks of paranoid self-confinement at the residence of an old friend and his daughter, she receives word of her boyfriend’s suicide. Cecilia also is a beneficiary of a sizable fortune with a few conditions such as being able to avoid committing crimes or developing some mental problems. Of course, it seems that the crazy ex is not so dead after all when there are some disturbing events that remind Cecilia of his old methods of keeping her under his thumb.
I ended up liking this movie better than I expected. The actual method used to create the invisibility is still far-fetched but still manages to be a little more plausible than in the original Wells version. There were some real moments of suspense and a bit of unpredictability. Moss gives a pretty convincing performance of the fear that is often instilled in real abuse victims. It’s primarily a science fiction thriller, so there has to be some grace extended here when it comes to plausibility, but I didn’t find that difficult as I feared.
Whannell didn’t come out with a cinematic masterpiece here, but the film is still quite a bit better than the impression left on me by the initial trailer.
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