The Invisible Man ** (2020, Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Harriet Dyer, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Michael Dorman) – Movie Review

Elisabeth Moss stars in The Invisible Man (2020) as Cecilia, who runs from her abusive lover, Adrian, who then apparently takes his own life. But Adrian has faked his own death and has been hiding in the attic…

Ah yes, The Invisible Man (2020) is a woman! Why didn’t they just call it The Invisible Woman just for clarity’s sake? Elisabeth Moss stars as The Invisible Woman, Cecilia Kass, who runs from her abusive lover, Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who then apparently takes his own life and leaves her his fortune. Cecilia knows that this news, relayed by Adrian’s slick and slimy brother, Tom Griffin (Michael Dorman), is way too good to be true.

In fact Adrian has faked his own death and has been hiding in the attic, stealing her stuff to gaslight and sabotage Cecilia, watching her sleep. Okay then, at a stretch that just about makes him The Invisible Man, but, no, not really.

This new Universal Monster movie has virtually no relation to the 1933 vintage Universal horror movie The Invisible Man, or to H G Wells’s book. If Wells objected to aspects of the 1933 film, he must be turning over in his grave at the 2020 The Invisible Man.

To be fair, Leigh Whannell’s screen story and screenplay are entirely fresh and original, so this is no remake, so that’s a plus point. The fresh spin on an old story is very much in keeping with the times – 2020 that is – with grimly determined heroines and nasty abusive men. So, not much fun then.

Elisabeth Moss is the wrong actress for this new story. She is herself so strong, powerful and scary that it is impossible to believe she could have got herself in the mess with the abusive lover in the first place and that she couldn’t survive and triumph if it was all a plot and he was coming after her. Cecilia Kass never seems is any real danger, so where are the thrills and the horror?

There is also too much of Elisabeth Moss’s Cecilia Kass and too little of The Invisible Man, Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), whose back story we need to see. Admittedly starting with the puzzling fleeing from the man’s bed and house provides a very tense opening sequence but it still needs to be the opening sequence of the film’s second act.

Aldis Hodge makes a very improbable police detective as James Lanier, who, in keeping with the film’s anti-men stance, starts by protecting Cecilia but cheerily abandons her to her own devices and the clutches of the villain, lamely apologising to her later!

As director, Leigh Whannell indulges himself in endless Steadicam chase shots, and allows the movie to run into serious overtime at 125 minutes. An edit with a sharp pair of scissors of around a quarter of a hour would tighten and tense up the movie neatly. The production is slick, allowing us plenty of time to look around and admire the Invisible Man’s stupendous home. It is the most desirable thing in the whole movie, an American cousin of the house in Parasite. Benjamin Wallfisch composes the music for the film, which is another classy ingredient.

The movie keeps its horror movie credentials by being very full on with some strong bloody violence (slightly censored in the UK version), and some strong language.

The Invisible Man was originally announced by Universal as a starring vehicle for Johnny Depp, so things change, as they say, wow how they change! Filmed for very little ($7,000,000) in Australia, with only half a dozen characters and a handful of sets, The Invisible Man (2020) is a nice little earner for Universal and Blumhouse.

And now we can look forward to the sequel, actually The Invisible Woman, in which Elisabeth Moss will no doubt be better cast. Or we could look forward to seeing again the 1933 vintage Universal horror movie The Invisible Man.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Movie Review

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