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THE INVISIBLE (PG-13)

Plot Summary: Caught in a ghostly netherworld between life and death, a teen tries to persuade his attacker to report the crime to the police - and thus save his life.

Reason for the Rating: Violence, criminality, sensuality and language - all involving teens.

The Invisible delivers an intriguing story and capable acting, even though it falls apart at the end and should have ended fifteen minutes before it did. If the trailers left you expecting a teen thriller, you might be disappointed by this film – or you might be pleasantly surprised, like I was. In fact, there was no strong element of fear in this movie, even though the premise has the spirit of a nearly-dead teenager walking around trying to convince his would-be murderer to tell the police where his body is hidden.

Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin, reminiscent of a young John Cusack) is a high school student in love with poetry and at odds with his mother (Marcia Gay Harden). Schoolmate, Annie Newton, played with endearing skill by newcomer Margarita Levieva, is a mini-thug who wears all black (including a black skullcap) and tools around with two boys who don't seem to mind beating up anyone she tells them to. Newton and Powell clash during lunch time one day when he whispers in her ear, "you're broken," and she attacks him in a blind rage. Newton's boyfriend Marcus Bohem, (Alex O'Loughlin), a career criminal who's into stealing luxury cars and dealing drugs, calls the cops on her when Newton refuses to give Bohem the take from her latest stealing spree. Because of a lie from Powell's traitorous best friend Pete (Chris Marquette), she thinks Powell reported her, so she and her cohorts attack him one night after a party, beating him senseless.

After the beating, Newton asks the wounded Nick, "Who's broken now?" When Powell whispers through bloodied lips, "it's still you," Newton, in her rage, delivers an apparently fatal blow that convinces her she has committed murder.

The next morning, unaware at first of his physical condition, Newton tries to resume his normal activities, until he slowly realizes no one can see or hear him; he is caught in a ghostly netherworld. Through a series of events, Powell discovers that he is not dead yet - somewhere out there his body is still fighting for its life. But will he be discovered in time? Powell tracks down Newton, trying to get her attention and tell her that she has the opportunity to do "one good thing" in her life by telling the authorities where she hid his body. As it turns out, Newton is the only one who can hear Powell. As he tries to persuade her over the next 24 hours to save his life, she undergoes an inner transformation that the director demonstrates visiually by having the character remove her skullcap, finally revealing her hidden feminine beauty.

The Invisible begins well: artful, almost Gothic in its melancholy, but not grotesque or blatantly violent. The story, based loosely on Swedish movie Osynlige, Den, has potential. But like so many other movies, it runs out of time and steam towards the end, leaving me with the impression that they'd also run out of money and had to wrap up the storyline quickly. Oddly enough, at the same time there were large chunks of the movie that a more savvy director would have left on the cutting room floor, like a wildly unbelievable car chase led by little Annie Newton - herself after having been shot in the abdomen.

In many ways, this was a very painful movie to watch. Every character seemed to experience his or her own personal version of despair right from the beginning, with no hope of anything better. Poor, broken Annie seems to be the only character who moves from being broken to redemptive "brokenness," and in that, she is most fortunate.

FAMILYFANS RECOMMENDS:

If you can ignore the collapse of the story and the way it veers into corniness at the end, The Invisible has something of value to offer for mature teens and adults.

AFTER THE SHOW: 

• What did you think about Nick's attitude toward Annie at the beginning of the movie? How did it change as the story progressed?

• you were in Nick's shoes what would you have done different? What could Annie have done differently?

• The Invisible is, at it's core, a story of redemption. In your opinion, which character displayed the most redemptive, Christ-like behavior? Defend your answer.

TG

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