By Melissa Antoinette Garza
The Invisible Man is a dick! Fuck him. I hate that guy. He’s a rich geeky bitch with a bad temper. Imma want to punch him in his oddly shaped head.
I’ll start at the beginning because that’s usually the best place to start, MEMENTO (2000) notwithstanding. THE INVISIBLE MAN opens with domestic abuse victim Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) drugging and leaving her very wealthy and very violent boyfriend Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). In my opinion, she wasted Valium on him. I would’ve hit him over the head with a shovel and kept the Diazepam for a rainy day, but that’s just me. Instead, she gently gets out of bed and tiptoes to her bag and grabs a few essentials before getting away. She’s nearly caught when a car alarm is set off, but she still is able to escape.
Sadly, she doesn’t take her dog though she does remove his electronic collar so that he can escape dip-shit. I have to admit, she lost some sympathy points from me for not taking that pup. That little guy was loyal and helped her out of some rough spots. She could’ve grabbed him, but I understand she was freaking out and didn’t know where she’d end up. Still, grab the damn dog! Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart. You’re shaking my confidence, daily!
Her sis Emily (Harriet Dyer) picks her up just as Adrian comes running out to the car to try to stop her. Em brings Cecilia to a cop buddy she knows and is good friends with.
Officer James Lanier (Aldis Hodge) is a single father raising his teen daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), but he’s a great guy and ready to help. He invites Cecilia to stay at his house so that Adrian can’t find her.
Initially, Cecilia is a mess. She can’t step outside without freaking out every time a person runs by her as she fears it’s her rich-bitch ex. She’s not paranoid though. Psycho boy is a fucking stalker.
When Em shows, Cecilia panics. She’s sure Adrian will soon follow, but instead her sis delivers some good news. Ding Dong the Dick-wad is dead!
Celebrate good times, come on! Let’s Celebrate!
Cecilia is called into Attorney Tom Griffin’s (Michael Dorman) office. Tom is Adrian’s brother and was in charge of delivering the details regarding his bro’s estate. Don’t get excited. He’s a shithead too, but he is far hotter than his brother. I was admittedly torn. I knew Tom was a dirty scumbag, but my vagina kind of dug him.
Tom gives a little speech about how chicks dated Adrian for his loot, and then tells Cecilia that she was left a cool 5 mil. The money will be doled out in $100K installments as long as she doesn’t end up in prison or a psych ward. If that happens, the green goes to Tom.
Cecilia finds a bit of peace and connects with both James and Sydney. She buys gifts for them and even starts an account for Syd to go to college. All in all, Cecilia is a good dame. If not for leaving the dog behind, Imma would totes have her back.
Soon, weird shit starts going down. A stove catches fire when she leaves the room momentarily, despite the flame being too low. Paperwork that was in her bag for a job interview goes missing, and she’s drugged with the same Valium she dropped outside of Adrian’s after slipping him some. When the bottle resurfaces, she determines that the mofo with the tiny dick faked his death.
She asks James to visit Tom with her, but doesn’t tell him why. She begs the attorney to stop Adrian, but Tom assures her that it’s all in her head. He says that he knows how abusive his bro was and pleads with Cecilia to get over it. She replies, “RAWR RAWR Attorney Tom – imma get over Adrian if I can get under you!” Okay, she didn’t say that. She should have though. Tom is a sexy motherfucker.
Soon, James and Syd lose their patience with Cecilia. They think the chick lost her marbles and they ask her to leave. When she visits Em for help, she gets the door slammed in her face too. The Invisible Douche hacked her email and sent one to her sis saying all sorts of horrible stupid shit. Cecilia swears that she didn’t send it, but Emily is d-o-n-e, done!
Desperate to prove she’s not crazy, Cecilia goes back to Adrian’s house. You know who is waiting at his house – the poor abandoned doggie. He’s so happy to see Cecilia too. He even defends her when bitch-boy starts knocking her around. Cecilia can’t see where the punches are coming from, but the pup can sense it and guards her. He deserved so much better than those humans!
Before Adrian fucks her up a bit, she is able to find the suit he uses to make himself invisible. She tries to get it out of the house but when she’s attacked, the feat is impossible.
The whole event pisses Adrian off more and he starts targeting the people Cecilia cares about. Someone needs to smash that shithead in the face!
Soon, Cecilia is suspected of murder and arrested. That said, she’s not easily defeated and the former couple eventually come face-to-face in a tense showdown.
THE INVISIBLE MAN was splendid! I loved it. From the first few moments, my heart was racing. Moss really sold herself as a domestic violence survivor. She starts off as a woman who was beaten down so much that she doubts every move she makes. For so long, Adrian picked out her clothing, dictated what their conversations were, where she could go, who she could go with and even what she thought. Her mind was no longer her own and she had to fight tooth-and-nail to get it back. He got off on making her feel stupid and insane. He used violence, threats and insults to control her, and it worked for a very long time.
When she got away, she was able to slowly regain her autonomy. She saw the strength and confidence of her sister and wanted that for herself, too. When there was no one left to protect or shield her, she didn’t give up. She found the tenacity and perseverance to fight back. When she did, it no longer mattered who believed what she said because she believed in herself. She knew she wasn’t insane and she knew what she had to do to stop her fuck-wit ex.
Every actor did a phenomenal job. Jackson-Cohen was superb at making me hate Adrian’s guts. From moment one, I wanted him suffocated with a pillow.
Aldis Hodge was fab as the good cop. He was the necessary “NOT ALL MEN” character but gave James so much more depth than just being that. The affection, care and consideration Lanier shows for both Syd and Cecilia is so genuine and chemistry-driven that it solidifies a bond not only between the people on the screen, but between James and the audience, as well. Outside of Cecilia, he is by far the person the viewers care most about.
I highly suggest this flick. It’s SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY (1991) and ENOUGH (2002) meets a far better version of THE HOLLOW MAN (2000). Though many moments are predictable, they are also very satisfying. There were a few decent surprises, but the movie is not made for shock value. I appreciate that. This film told a simple story that has been done before, but added some new things that worked extremely well.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
