Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Most people will know Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men or The Handmaid’s Tale, but to me she’ll always be the breakout star of Uwe Boll’s 2002 classic Heart of America
In The Invisible Man, she plays Cecilia Kass, on the run from her abusive, controlling wealthy optics engineer boyfriend Adrian. Not long after she’s able to make her escape, living with childhood friend, Aldis Hodge’s Detective James Lanier, and his teenage daughter Storm Reid’s Sydney Cecilia get word that Adrian has committed suicide.
Except, weird things keep happening to Cecilia – things being moved, things going missing, in ways that leads her to believe that Adrian hasn’t really departed this world after all. And, well, I’m not sure how much more of a plot synopsis you need. By the very nature of the film’s title you’re already a step ahead of the characters in their understanding of the setup.
Things escalate over time, of course, with her friends and family being turned against her, and doubting her sanity, and getting much worse from there, before Cecilia desperately tries to find a way to turn the tables on her stalker.
Slightly unusual structure, this, as it spends a lot less time than I’d have expected on the subtler, paranoia inducing stuff in the first hour, which is treated broadly as a ghost story, before somewhat abruptly transitioning into a thriller for the second hour. To be fair, I enjoyed both halves, but it’s still a bit jarring.
It is to Elisabeth Moss’ great credit that she carries the somewhat hokey premise to believability by the dint of her very convincing performance, and writer / director Leigh Whannell keeps things in motion ably enough to produce an enjoyable two hour slice of entertainment.
Another budget-smashing success for Blumhouse productions, and this one at least is well deserved.