The Invisible Man (2020) – Review

We must thank our lucky stars that Universal’s attempt at a Dark Universe imploded on impact, with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy failing miserably, for without this cinematic misfire we most likely would never have gotten writer/director Leigh Whannell’s wonderful take on the classic H.G. Wells story, The Invisible Man.

Other than the “invisible mad scientist” aspect of Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, there isn’t all that much to connect it with the titular character created by H.G. Wells; there is the aforementioned mad scientist, and he does become invisible, but in this version, the story focuses more on the victim while the invisible man himself is relegated to very little screen time — visible or invisible — as he’s portrayed as more of an unrelenting malevolence rather than your standard movie villain.

We are first introduced to Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) as she methodically makes her well-planned escape from her fiancé, tech tycoon Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a cruel and controlling bastard whose mental and physical abuse has pushed her to the breaking point. With the help of her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) and best friend James Lanier (Aldis Hodge), she slowly tries to recover from this abusive relationship, greatly helped by news that Adrian has committed suicide, but this is not going to lead to an easy happily-ever-after for poor Cecilia. The movie wastes no time in getting to the invisible shenanigans as absolutely not-dead Griffin quickly continues his manipulative torture of Cecilia, only now aided by the fact that he’s invisible. How is this possible? Did he drink some diabolical potion? Nope, turns out that Griffin was a leader in optic science and has somehow built a suit made up of hundreds of little cameras that are able to create the perfect camouflage.

Perfect unless someone throws paint at you.

Cecilia quickly comes to the realization that Griffin may not be as dead as one would hope — we get many scenes of her looking around a room seemingly sure that she is being watched — with the camera brilliantly utilizing negative space to have us guessing if there is someone there or not. Unfortunately, no one else is buying her “He faked his suicide” theory and the idea that he’s been planning to exact revenge on her ever since. As the film progresses, Griffin’s dastardly invisible tricks start to drive those close to Cecilia away, leaving her even more vulnerable to his twisted games, and for the bulk of this film’s two-hour run-time, we feel as trapped as Cecilia, with the feeling of dread and suspense becoming an almost palpable force.

Stray Observations:

• Adrian Griffin shares the surname of the original Invisible Man by H.G. Well.
• The is suit covered in small cameras that resemble eyes, which could be a nod to the Greek god Argus who has been described as having multiple, often one hundred, eyes.  This is fitting for a character with a bit of a god complex as Adrian Griffin has.
• The character in the original Wells novel was driven insane by the invisibility formula, in this movie, he was pretty much insane from the get-go.
• Adrian was said to be the founder of a company called Cobol, which was also the fictional company that the hero’s wife worked for in Whannell’s previous film, Upgrade. The shared universe, perhaps?
• The suit must be covered in some amazing Teflon-like surface as it sheds paint and blood quickly and easily.
• This film’s budget was probably about the same as Tom Cruise’s dry cleaning budget on The Mummy.

At a glance, this film looks like a science fiction remake of Sleeping with the Enemy, with Elisabeth Moss stepping into Julia Roberts’ role, but Leigh Whannell has the ability to take the basic premise of an abusive relationship and then spin it in several different directions while adding on a few fresh moments of utter terror and paranoia. Now, Whannell was definitely not re-inventing the wheel here, despite the invisibility potion being swapped out for a tech suit, we still get scenes of footsteps being left by invisible feet and rain revealing the villain, but the level of suspense he manages to create is staggering.

Finally, one cannot review this film without mentioning Elisabeth Moss’ outstanding performance as a woman pushed to the edge but who eventually gains the strength to push back. Some may accuse this film of having some sort of feminist agenda — a science fiction “Me Too” movie as you will — but I simply found it to be an excellent thriller that kept one nailed to your seat for its entire run-time. Political messaging need not apply.