Directed by: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Harriet Dyer, Aldis Hodge, Michael Dorman, Storm Reid
Adrian Griffin takes the stalking of his ex to levels never before seen (pun not intended) in The Invisible Man, a cold, dark, and eerily effective take on the classic horror tale. The Invisible Man in this case is Adrian (Jackson-Cohen), whose girlfriend Cecelia (Moss) flees from their Northern California palace in the middle of the night after drugging him. According to Cecelia, the relationship was abusive, with Adrian controlling every aspect of her life. She hides out with her cop friend James (Hodge), a single dad with a teenage daughter Cecelia adores. Adrian doesn't know where James lives, but Cecelia is still terrified to venture outside for fear of being kidnapped by Adrian and returned to her former life.
About two weeks after leaving Adrian, Cecelia's sister (Dyer) brings comforting news: Adrian has committed suicide, and furthermore, Adrian left Cecelia five million dollars in his will. There is a catch, and the catch is Adrian may not be dead after all. Inexplicable things start happening to Cecelia which make her question her own reality, such as her breakfast being burned, her covers pulled off her in the middle of the night, and then being thrown and dragged around a room by her hair by seemingly no one. Cecelia deduces that Adrian, a genius who made his fortune in optics, has found a way to make himself invisible. Her sister and James don't believe her, because, how could they? Such a theory is preposterous, isn't it?
The Invisible Man starts a bit slowly, but gains traction and steam after the first two plodding sequences in which Adrian (or not) meticulously stalks Cecelia. Since Adrian was only seen briefly in the opening moments of the movie, we have to accept Cecelia's version of their relationship, but can it be believed? Did Cecelia read Adrian wrong? The Invisible Man plants those seeds of doubt by not showing us too much of Adrian, so his name and reputation casts a long shadow over the events.
Upon reflection, there are plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. Cecelia is able to discover the truth of the situation with relative ease when going back to Adrian's former home. If Adrian were as brilliant as he was purported to be, wouldn't he change the security codes on his house? And who exactly fed the dog in the weeks following Adrian's reported suicide? No matter, because Elisabeth Moss makes a sympathetic hero whose world is crumbling thanks to an ex who can't stop making her life miserable even from beyond the grave. The camera seems to stalk Cecelia, invading her space, and never allowing her room to breathe. Her home with Adrian is a museum with open windows overlooking the sea which barely feels lived in. If Patrick Bateman of American Psycho owned a California home instead of a Manhattan apartment, it would look and feel like this place.
All of these touches add up to a suspenseful thriller which doesn't insult the audience's intelligence, but plays that audience (and Cecelia) like a finely tuned piano. Hitchcock would've loved The Invisible Man, and maybe could have even made it once upon a time.
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