The Invisible Man (2020)

Domestic violence and emotional abuse are not often portrayed without sensation.  The one film company I never expected honesty on this subject from is Blumhouse Producions and somehow Jason Blum and his team delivered.  The Invincible Man stars Elizabeth Moss as Cecilia Cass.  She’s an architect with an emotionally abusive and controlling boyfriend named Adrian Griffin who is a leader in optics engineering.  Cecilia runs away from her boyfriend and the relationship after being controlled for months.  She hides away at her childhood friend’s house.  Cecilia’s friend James and his daughter Sydney support her as she recovers.  One day her sister comes to the house and explains Adrian is dead and that there is no longer any reason to be afraid.  Following this news, Cecilia discovers that Adrian left her 5 million dollars in his will.  She decides to use the new money to make a difference in the lives of James and Sydney.  What follows is Cecilia experiencing fear and paranoia as if she is being watched and while she believes this invisible force to be her presumed dead ex no one around her seems to agree.

This film is a concentrated exercise in mental and emotional survival of someone who has been abused and lost the core of who they know themselves to be.  Elizabeth Moss embodies Cecilia as a woman who is battling through.  At no point did I feel she was safe or that the audience was safe from the torment inflicted by Adrian Chase.  Leigh Whannell may have made his mark as a director by helping craft the Saw franchise, but he used a very light touch in how he crafts suspense.  He uses open space as his main antagonist,  If Adrian really did find a way to make himself invisible the camera wouldn’t focus on small spaces Cecilia is in and the direction is wisely pointed in the direction of everywhere that its possible he could be thereby causing a fear in both Cecilia and the viewer rooting for her.

The least appealing aspect of this movie is how the people supporting her are almost just as bad as the villain themselves.  Not only do they dismiss any notion that Cecilia may have a valid point that her ex could have cheated death but also, they marginalize any abusive struggle she went through to get free in the first place.  Survivors of any kind of abuse should be believed especially if they are experiencing any kind of post trauma aftereffects.  This film did survivors of such horrible attacks in that one aspect.

When violence does occur in The Invisible Man it is brutal and quick.  There is no effort to try and be silent or plan any attacks.  Every moment of violence is brash and unplanned because even though the antagonist may be invisible the film asks audiences to understand that if such brutality took place who would believe that an invisible person committed such an attack.

One other small problem with this film is that it had the opportunity for a much cleaner more satisfying ending and the route chosen deliberately dragged the film on another 20 minutes unnecessarily.  The final action set piece could have been shortened especially as all main questions had solid answers.  One counterpoint with the length is that it allowed our main character to change in a very unexpected way by the film’s end that I will not spoil other than to say it makes me want to see her again to learn whether than change sticks.

The Invisible Man may just be another horror film released by Blumhouse but there are enough smart decisions made both in its writing and direction to make it a experience people will remember.  See it for Ms. Moss’s incredible performance but stay for all the tension involved in watching her survive it.