What do you get when you cross The Sixth Sense with Ghost? Well, probably something that looks like The Invisible, but stars Bruce Willis and Whoopi Goldberg. You know, that probably would have been a better movie. Instead we actually get The Invisible, a dullard of a film populated with a cast that is easy not to like.
There were a number of things to like about the movie, but with characters that I did not care for, it was hard to be entertained. Now I don't need a movie to have likable characters, but some movies need them—you need someone to identify with, and this one failed to deliver.
If you have seen the trailer, you have an idea of what the movie is about. High school student Nick Powell is attacked and left for dead, and now Nick is stuck in a state of limbo where he has to solve his own murder in order to live again. Sure, the concept is a little out there, but it is one that could prove to be very interesting. Director David S. Goyer injects some nice visual touches, but the characters and their development are too weak to truly carry the concept anywhere. The story never really takes off, and never comes together in any logical fashion. The characters are mere sketches of people, there more to propel the plot then to inhabit the world.
We are introduced to Nick, an apparently gifted poet who makes money on the side by selling term papers to the school jocks. He is an angst-filled rich kid whose father died when he was young and who has a standoffish, cold mother who doesn't listen to him. Why should I like this guy? Is it because he stuck up for his broke friend who bought a stolen cell phone from the school underachiever? Because his mommy doesn't listen to him? He is just an annoying kid that I have no reason to connect with, much less when his limbo land adventures kick in.
As the story flows, we meet Nick, his lower income buddy Pete, and the slacker/thief Annie Newton. These characters form the primary troika that move the story along. As that story goes, Annie robs a jewelry store while her mechanic boyfriend steals a car. Being a little upset that she didn't listen to him, he calls the cops on her and she is arrested. Annie thinks Pete was the guy who told, he says it was Nick, and Nick is beaten and left for dead. Nick, now in limbo land, has to figure out he is a limbo citizen and then find himself before he really does die.
Now, first off, with friends like Pete, who needs enemies? Annie is given a little humanization through her rough home life where she acts as guardian to her little brother from their rather rotten parents. Sounds like I'm describing the average episode of Boston Public. Again, why am I supposed to care about these characters?
Article comments
1 - brandon
i have a question, im pretty sure i paid attention for the whole film, where was the old man from the trailer, who can see him.
2 - Chris Beaumont
He was only in the trailer, as was the line "Can I say something? It was my poem!" from t he classroom scene.
Often times scenes are shot just for the trailer, or were made prior to the finalizing of the final cut of the movie.
3 - rage
what is the music in the trailer? Its kinda technoish i guess?
4 - Sdlong
The old man from the trailer is in the dvd deleted scenes and he tells Nick that they're in a limbo invisible world now and no one can see them.
5 - Sandra from Sweden
I saw it yesterday and I've seen the original one.
All I can say is; so damn Hollywood!
They totally destroyed the ending when they did the bad person dies and the good one lives.
In the original swedish one, Nick tells Annie to unplug the machine so he dies and then the cop comes and get Annie.
And Nick's friend hangs himself in the original, which seems a bit better to me, than dress up in a suit and overdose like in this one.