I like Elisabeth Moss and enjoy her work on “The Handmaid’s Tale”, what I don’t enjoy is watching one of the best working right now, acting into empty space for the first hour of a film that just isn’t any fun. That’s what we get with the latest remake of the “Invisible Man.”
Moss plays Cecilia Kass, a women who chooses to escape her abusive boyfriend at the beginning of our story, only to find out he’s committed suicide and left her $5 million dollars. When strange events start occurring around Cecilia while she’s recovering from year’s of abuse, she suspects her ex, a leader in the field of optics, playing a role in the increasingly violent occurrences.
You’re not going to have any fun, and a good share of you won’t be scared.
Director Leigh Whannel insists on having a painfully slow build that makes the first half of the movie a straight-up waste of time. It’s remarkable how boring an invisible man can truly be when he insists on taking his time at our expense. The story is just boring and at times frustrating with an unnecessary final 20 minutes that should have been excluded altogether.
It’s not all bad. When “The Invisible Man” finally decides he wants to be entertaining, the special effects look really good and the suspense does eventually show up. The sound in this movie is also a high point with the plot forcing us to use our ears a lot.
And of course Moss acts her tail off here. She’s what really keeps this movie from falling on it’s rear.
I didn’t like it that much. Maybe you will. Either way, you’ll struggle with The Invisible Man, whether it’s through watching Moss suffer or just plain boredom is entirely up to you. I’m not sure if it was budget restraints, but if there were more “meat in the sandwich”, we could have had a much better time.
The Invisible Man
GRADE: C-
Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Rated: R