Never undervalue the worth of a woman. That's the persistent message in "The Invisible Man", the third film of writer-director Leigh Whannel who also written for the Saw and Insidious franchise. In this film, Cecilia Kass (Moss), the girlfriend of the overcontrolling scientist named Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), escaped one night with the help of her sister Emily Kass (Harriet Dyer). She stayed at the house of Emily's ex-husband James (Aldis Hodge) and their daughter Sydney (Storm Reid) for the meantime while she plans her permanent escape. However, weeks after running away, Adrian committed suicide leaving her behind a hefty amount of inheritance. What follows then is a series of misfortunes and unexplainable paranormal activities, ultimately leading to her deduction that Adrian found a way to be invisible.
Based on H.G. Wells's novel of the same name, Whannel's film takes all the interesting parts of the novel and twist it to incorporate important themes such as the #MeToo movement. "The Invisible Man" perfectly and convincingly captured the struggles of an abused woman in this film, completely depicting the negative effect of abuse on a woman's life. It becomes more powerful, though, as everything slowly comes crumbling down in Cecilia's life because of Adrian's interference. It is only a matter of time when she ultimately chooses to fight an enemy she can't see.
The theme of "The Invisible Man" is so utterly relevant that everything starts to feel uncomfortable especially when the backstory of Cecilia's escape unfolds. Thanks to Whannel writing and direction, Cecilia's journey feels true and legitimately scary. It's in fact super terrifying that even without the almost paranormal aspect of it, it's still a compelling story. This film excels in portraying reality. The film accurately captured the behavior of narcissistic psychopath expected to its main villain and that confrontational scene between Cecilia and Adrian have a certain terror within it that one will shiver as the camera traverse back and forth on their faces.
Moss's powerful performance pushes her character from traumatized to borderline insanity. "The Invisible Man" approaches each situation with such discomfort and consciousness as if explaining that this is more than a monster story. This is a man who feels alive when he beats up a defenseless woman, a devil whose scenes have a level of ambiguity signifying that anyone is subject to such evil.
3.5/5
