[Movie Review] The Invisible Man (2020)
Plot Summary: When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Director: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Runtime: 2hr 4min
Main Cast:- Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass
- Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Adrian Griffin
- Harriet Dyer as Emily Kass
- Aldis Hodge as James Lanier
- Storm Reid as Sydney Lanier
Review by: Erika T
Desperate to leave her horrible marriage to a brilliant but mad scientist (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) finds the opportunity to escape in the dead of night, disappearing into hiding. With the help of her sister (Harriet Dyer), their childhood friend (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter (Storm Reid) she tries to lay low. But when Cecilia's abusive ex commits suicide, she inherits a vast fortune and starts to feel that life can finally return to normal. However, strange occurrences that soon follow lead Cecilia to suspect his death was a hoax and she must act fast to save herself and those she loves.
What I Liked:
The movie sets the tone very well off the top and it stays fairly consistent all throughout. If you want intense, you should look no further. It’s filled with genuine scares and hair-raising scenes.
Elisabeth Moss gives a fantastic performance here. It’s easy for the audience to feel for her character as she claws her way out of a terrible relationship only to gradually descend into madness for reasons out of her control. It makes you think about anyone who has a mental illness and wonder if there’s truth to what they are saying.
I also thought the supporting cast did a great job and the story was well written in that you cared about her state of relationships with all of them.
What I Didn’t Like:
There were also a couple of sequences that I found confusing and thought needed more exposition. This led to a few moments where I thought Caitlin made bad choices.
While her husband is of course the WORST, I think the movie should have spent more time fleshing out his character and fleshing out how he achieves the feat. Oliver Jackson-Cohen is a really good actor and could have pulled it off well. There was too much telling when it came to him and not much showing. While it’s understandable that Caitlin is the main character, I feel like just 10 minutes of giving us the science behind it would have added to the intrigue; he is the title character after all. Adding this element would have elevated the movie in my opinion.
Summary
I was lucky enough to see it in the AMC Dolby Cinema where the sound and picture quality are the best. I think it accentuates the movie more from the sound point of view than the actual picture point of view. However, for soundophiles, I can recommend the ticket upgrade. But if neither of those features makes or breaks your experience, regular admission would suffice. But it’s certainly worth seeing on the big screen.
Images Courtesy of IMDB
