The Invisible

I like rock music. I listen to everything from White Zombie, to The Doors, to 30 Seconds To Mars at ear-bleeding volume. However, the many teen-friendly pop songs that pervade the otherwise contemplative ambiance of this remade Swedish supernatural thriller are obtrusive, and overly manipulative at best.

As the movie plays out, the insistent songs play on, telling the audience every step of the way how to feel. This is fine for teen anthem type movies (American Graffiti, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dazed & Confused, Orange County and so on…), but when it comes to ghost and dramatic stories, the overuse of such songs will only serve to date the movie and freeze it in time.

Which may actually be apropos — because the lead character of The Invisible, Nick (Justin Chatwin), is himself frozen in time: After a horrible bone-bashing beating, he is left for dead in a remote forest, and his phantom self is left to make sure his bleeding body is discovered before the last gasp escapes his just-so movie-rouged lips.

The third feature film from writer-turned-director David S. Goyer, The Invisible resonates with not only loud radio hits… it does have its arresting, quiet moments here and there. This is where the complex story is at its most effective. There is a touching and breath-stealing scene involving Nick and a little wild bird outside his bedroom window; a neat twist on the "spirit among the living" milieu; and there are some well-acted emotional scenes pulled off with considerable gravitas by a young newcomer named Margarita Levieva. She plays Annie, the "other" invisible character in the film (her concealment is a self-imposed shroud of toughness), and she manages to steal every scene she's in.

While The Invisible is slick, pretty, and action-packed, the teens are far too angst-ridden for my taste. It's like watching Ghost Rebel Without A Cause at times; and to be honest, it becomes excruciating to endure as the songs swell, the race against time ramps up, and the self-sacrifice comes hard and fast. (If you stay long enough to watch the entire sequence of the kid flying his kite, you have a stronger stomach than me.)

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