HTF DVD Review: The Invisible

Those who have been pining for more teen dramas filled with angst will find their hearts’ desire with The Invisible. For all others, beware. David S. Goyer’s Americanized remake of a Swedish film (based on a novel) is a mawkish experience: melodramatic, hazily plotted (with a confused mythology that never rings true), and irritatingly unmoving despite the herculean efforts everyone involved is making to wring tears from our eyes. If misty eyes were indeed their goal, they failed miserably with me.

Sensitive high school writing scholar Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) is beaten and left for dead deep in the woods by a gang of school toughs who mistakenly believe he ratted out to the police the ringleader’s jewelry store holdup the previous night. In a state of limbo between life and death, Nick’s spirit wanders around the town trying to get someone to listen to his pleas for help, but only the ringleader who landed the final, near-fatal kick seems to be able to tune in to Nick’s spiritual wavelength, and the ringleader just isn‘t feeling magnanimous.

Sounds trite, doesn’t it? It is, and though writers Mick Davis and Christine Roum have made a gutsy move by having the ringleader be the school’s toughest girl, the experiment doesn’t work. I didn’t buy for a second that this junior-sized Ma Barker (played by Margarita Levieva) could beat up or intimidate anyone (including facing off with her burly father). In ludicrous fashion she masterminds a jewelry store robbery on the spur of the moment, outruns and outthinks cops on at least two separate occasions, breaks into both the school (for a quick shower and some sleep) and Nick’s home with just her trusty pocket knife (amazing there were no alarms anywhere, no night watchmen at the school), and roughs up her tough ex-con boy friend (Alex O’Loughlin, a far cry from his current role as a vampire detective on CBS’ Moonlight). On top of that, she’s a crack shot with a pistol, and when that ski cap comes off and her luxurious hair billows around her head and shoulders, she could be on the next cover of Vogue. Bonnie Parker, move over!

Some scenes do have some punch. A climactic rescue effort near the end, for example, is handled by director Goyer with some effectively rising tension, and there‘s a graceful opening dream sequence that moves well. But he doesn’t get the best out of Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden who plays Nick’s hardened mother or the detective on the case played by Callum Keith Rennie. And as for the two leads, neither Chatwin nor Levieva do charismatic work though the writing with its absurd plotting and eye-rolling lapses in logic is probably more to blame. I’m not sure any actor could have brought any degree of believability to this ghostly mess.




The film’s 2.35:1 aspect ratio is presented in anamorphic video on this DVD transfer. Quality issues are all over the map with this title. Sharpness varies considerably throughout the running time, and color is likewise variable from realistic to overly hot with brownish skin tones. The color in long shots sometimes seems smeared, and there is considerable edge enhancement on display. There is also flashing and some aliasing in fine line structures in several places during the movie. The film has been divided into 16 chapters.



The Dolby Digital 5.1 track makes good use of the available channels. The rears are most often used for music (there are many Dawson’s Creek moments where pop songs wail up in the background to comment on the on-screen action). LFE can be deep, and the rears get a workout late in the film at a dam whose gates have been opened.



The DVD features two separate audio commentaries. In the first, director David Goyer and co-writer Christine Roum take a scene by scene approach in their interesting discussion about making the film and the ways in which it differs from the Swedish original. In the second (unnecessary) commentary track co-writer Mick Davis’ Scottish brogue only occasionally chimes in to comment about what we’re seeing (or going to see) in a scene adding nothing that hasn‘t been covered in the first commentary.

Two different music videos are offered, both in nonanamorphic letterbox. The 5-minute “The Kill” is performed by 30 Seconds to Mars while “Taking Back Control” (the better of the two offerings) is sung by Sparta with interwoven film clips lasting 3½ minutes.

Eleven deleted scenes, all in anamorphic widescreen and running 13½ minutes, are also included and may have director commentary turned on or off. The scenes present a fix-up date subplot dropped from the film as well as some other moments with characters whose actions slowed down the film’s pace or repeated information already established.

Trailers for upcoming Buena Vista releases such as Ratatouille, Lost - Season 3, Wild Hogs, Becoming Jane, among others, are provided. There is no trailer for The Invisible on this DVD though it has been featured on many recent Buena Vista releases.




Made by the producers of The Sixth Sense, The Invisible goes to the spectral well once too often. While not a truly terrible film, it’s a disappointing attempt at a teen fantasy drama that simply misses the mark.


Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC

Re: HTF DVD Review: The Invisible

I can't stand Justin Chatwin after his terrible turn in the weirdly overpraised (though obscure) Chumscrubber, but I have to admit this sort of sounds like it might be fun for a rental.